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COMMON SCPIOOLS 



AND 



TEACHERS' SEMINARIES. 



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By CALVIN E. STOWE, D. D., 

PROFESSOR oy BIJBT.ICA!.. LITERATURE, LAXi', SEMINARY, CIXCINXATI, OHIO. 



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BOSTON: 
MARSH, CAPEN, LYON, AND WEBB, 

1839. 



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Entered according to x\ct of Congress, in tiie year 1839, by 

Marsh, CapejV, Lyon, and Webb, 
in the Clerk's OiTice of the District Court of Massachusetts. 



EDVCATION PRESS. 



07 



ADVERTISEMENT, 



The first of the following pieces is a ' Report on Ele- 
mentary Public Instruction in Europe, wliich was made to 
the General Assembly of Ohio, in December, 1837.' It 
was printed by the Legislature, and copies sent to every 
school district in the State. The Legislature of Penn- 
sylvania also published it, both in Enghsh and German, 
and distributed it throughout that State. It was again 
printed, by the Legislature of Massachusetts, and it has 
also been published in Michigan, New York, and several 
other States. Notwithstanding this extensive supply, the 
demand for it still continues ; and it is now accordingly 
reprinted, with corrections by the Author. 

The second piece is an article originally j)ublished in 
the American Biblical Repository, for July, 1839. Its 
purpose is to promote the same great object that is con- 
templated in the first, and the Author hopes it may prove 
not less acceptable and useful. 



REPORT 

ON 

ELEMENTARY PUBLIC INSTRUCTION. 



To his Excellency the Governor, and the Honorable ike 
General Assembly, of the State of Ohio : 

In March, 1836, just before I embarked for Europe, 
I received a communication from Governor Lucas, with 
the great seal of the vState, enclosing the following re- 
solves of the General Assembly, to wit : 

" Resolved J by the General Assembly of the State of 
Ohio^ That C. E. Stowe, Professor in one of the literary- 
institutions of this State, be requested to collect, during 
the progress of his contemplated tour in Europe, such 
facts and information as he may deem useful to the State, 
in relation to the various systems of pubHc instruction and 
education which have been adopted in the several coun- 
tries through which he may pass, and make report thereof, 
with such practical observations as he may think proper, 
to the next General Assembly. 

'' Resolved, That his Excellency the Governor be re- 
quested to transmit a certified copy of the foregoing pro- 
ceedings to Professor Stowe." 

In pursuance of the above resolutions, I communicated 
the intention of the General Assembly to Honorable A. 
Stevenson, the American Minister near the British Court, 
and he very readily furnished me with the credentials 
necessary for the most satisfactory attainment of the ob- 
ject of my inquiries. I am also happy to remark, that 
the communication of Governor Lucas was a ready pass- 
port to my free admission to every public institution in 
1* 



6 ELEMENTARy 

Europe to which I apphed ; and that my endeavors were 
seconded, in the most encouraging manner, by all the 
gentlemen connected with the educational establishments 
in the several countries through which I passed ; and the 
warmest expressions of approbation were elicited, of the 
zeal manifested by so young a State as Ohio, in the great 
cause of general education. Particularly in some of the 
old communities of central Europe, where it happened 
to be known that I was born in the same year in which 
Ohio became a sovereign State, it seemed to be matter 
of amusement, as well as gratification, that a nian, who 
was just as old as the State in which he lived, had come, 
with official authority, to inquire respecting the best mode 
of education for the growing population of his native land ; 
and they remarked that our Governor and Legislators 
must be very enlightened and highly-cultivated men. 
When, in one instance, I informed them that our Gov- 
ernor was a plain farmer, and that a majority of our 
Legislators were of the same occupation, the w^ell-know-n 
line wdiich a Latin poet applies to husbandmen, was ap- 
plied to us : — 

*' O fortunatos nimiura, si sua bona norint !" 
'* O happy people, if they do but appreciate their own blessings 

In the progress of my tour I visited England, Scotland, 
France, Prussia, and the different States of Germany; 
and had opportunity to see the celebrated Universities of 
Cambridge, Oxford, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Paris, Berlin, 
Halle, Leipsic, Heidelberg, and some others ; and I 
was every where received with the greatest kindness, 
and every desirable facility was afforded me for the pros- 
ecution of my inquiries. But, knowing that a solid founda- 
tion must be laid before a durable superstructure can be 
reared, and being aware that, on this principle, the chief 
attention of our Legislature is, and for the present must 
be, directed to our common schools, my investigation of 
the universities was comparatively brief — and the most 
of my time v/as spent in visiting the best district schools 
I could hear of, and also the high schools intended for 



i»» 



PUBLIC INSTRUCTION. 7 

the business education of young men, and the institutions 
for the education of teachers. 

Before I proceed to the result of my inquiries on these 
topics, 1 would call the attention of the Legislature to 
some facts of a more general nature, which strongly im- 
pressed themselves upon my mind during the progress of 
my tour ; and which, it seems to me, have a very impor- 
tant bearing upon the successful maintenance, if not the 
very existence, of free institutions in our country. I al- 
lude particularly to the wonderful change which has taken 
place in the policy of monarchical governments in respect 
to the education of the people. Formerly it was supposed 
that despotism could be maintained only by a sovereign 
v/ith an army devoted to his interests, and dependant 
only upon himself for subsistence ; an aristocracy which 
should monopolize the wealth and the intellectual culture 
of the entire nation ; and a mass of people held in entire 
ignorance of their rights and privileges as men, and 
condemned to drudge during life for a bare and preca- 
rious subsistence — the mere dependants and slaves of 
the higher orders. But what is the aspect which the 
sovereignties of Europe now present ? — and what is the 
change which is forcing itself along, even into the des- 
potisms of Asia and Africa ? Ever since the revolution 
which separated this country from the British empire, the 
idea of popular rights has been working Its way Irresistibly 
throughout the civilized world ; and sovereigns who have 
had the sagacity to see the unavoidable results, have 
adapted their measures to the new aspect of the times. 
A new era in the history of civUization has evidently com- 
menced. A despotic king, of the Protestant faith, dread- 
ing the evils of an Ignorant and unbridled democracy, such 
as was witnessed in the French Revolution, has now, for 
forty years, been pursuing a course of instruction for his 
whole people, more complete, better adapted to develope 
every faculty of the soul, and to bring into action every 
capability of every kind that may exist, even in the poorest 
cottage of the most obscure corner of his kingdom, than 
has ever before been imagined. Men of the highest order 
of Intellect and most extensive attainments are encouraged 



8 ELEMENTARY 

10 devote themselves to the business of teaching ; the 
best plans for the furtherance of this object are imme- 
diately received and generously rewarded ; talent and in- 
dustry, wherever they exist, are sought out and promoted ; 
and nothing is left undone that can help forward this great 
design. 

The introduction of this system was preceded by polit- 
ical changes, which, considered as emanating from the 
government itself, have scarcely a parallel in the history 
of nations. When Frederick William III. ascended the 
throne of Prussia, in 1797, the condition of the peo- 
ple was in many respects truly deplorable. But imme- 
diately upon his accession he set about reforming abuses, 
Unid introducing improvement^J The odious religious 
edict w^as abohshed ;* the administration of justice was 
thoroughly reformed, and rigid economy introduced into 
the royal household. The exclusive privileges of the 
nobles were taken away, and their powder so completely 
broken, that there is now no hereditary aristocracy which 
can interfere with the sovereign, or oppress the people. 

In ISIO the peasantry, who before had no owiiership 
in the soil which they cultivated, and consequently no 
independence of character, by a royal decree, became 
freeholders on the following terms, namely : those who 
held their lands on perpetual lease, by giving up one third, 
and those who held them on hmited or life leases, by 
giving up one half, to the landlord, became the owners 
in fee-simple of the rest. The military is now so mod- 
elled, that every citizen between the ages of eighteen and 
twenty-one is in actual service in the standing army, 
where he is instructed in all that pertains to military life, 
and then returns to his peaceful occupations. Thus the 
army is made up entirely of citizens — and every citizen 
is a soldier ; and there is no such thing as a standing army 
at the entire devotion of the sovereign, and independent 
of the people. 

The Prime Minister, Hardenberg, in a circular pub- 

* This edict required every clergyman of the established Church to 
swear adhesion to a minute creed, issued by royal authority, or abandon 
his calling. 



PUBLIC INSTRUCTION. 9 

lished at the time when these reforms were in progress, 
declares, that " the new system is based upon the prin- 
ciple, that every subject, personally free, be able to raise 
himself, and develope his powers freely, without let or 
hinderance from any other ; that the public burdens be 
borne in common and in just proportions ; that equality 
before the law be secured to every subject ; that justice 
be rigidly and punctually administered ; that merit, in 
whatever rank it may be found, be enabled to rise without 
obstacle ; that the government be carried on with unity, 
order, and power ; that, by the education of the people, 
and the spread of true religion, the general interests, and 
a national spirit be promoted, as the only secure basis of 
the national welfare." 

Another European king, of the Roman Catholic faith, 
Louis of Bavaria, who is connected by marriage with the 
royal house of Prussia, moved by this example, and 
excited by emulation in behalf both of his church and 
kingdom, is now zealously pushing forward the same ex- 
periment among his own people, and already the Bavarian 
schools begin to rival the Prussian ; and the University 
of Berlin finds its only equal in that of Munich. Louis 
has in one thing gone even beyond his brother of Prussia, 
in that he has granted to his people a real constitutional 
representation in the government, a privilege and a right 
which the Prussians have labored in vain to extort from 
Frederick William. 

Even the Autocrat, Nicholas of Russia, (married to sl 
daughter of the Prussian monarch, who inherits much of 
her father's spirit,) has been induced to commence a 
similar system throughout his vast dominions ; and from 
the reports to the Emperor of M. d'OuvarofF, the Russian 
Minister of Public Instruction, it appears that already, 
from Poland to Siberia, and from the White Sea to the 
regions beyond the Caucasus, including the provinces so 
recently wrested from Persia, there are the beginnings of 
a complete system of common-school instruction for the 
whole people, to be carried into full execution as fast as 
it is possible to provide the requisite number of qualified' 
teachers. 



10 ELEMENTARY 

Thus three sovereigns, representhig the three great 
divisions of Christendom, the Protestant, the Romish, 
and the Greek, are now zealously engaged in doing what 
despotic sovereigns have seldom done before — enlighten- 
ing and educating their people ; and that too with better 
plans of instruction, and a more efficient accomplishment 
in practice, than the world has ever before witnessed. 
Nor is the spirit of education confined to these nations. 
The kingdom of Wirtemberg, and the grand dutchy of 
Baden, are not behind Prussia or Bavaria. The smaller 
States of Germany, and even old Austria, are pushing 
forward in the same career ; France is all awake ; Spain 
and Italy are beginning to open their eyes ; the govern- 
ment of England — which has hitherto neglected the educa- 
tion of the common people more than any other Protestant 
country of Europe — is beginning to bestir itself; and 
even the Sultan of Turkey, and the Pacha of Egypt, are 
looking around for well-qualified teachers to go among 
their people. In London and Paris I saw Turks, Arabs, 
and Greeks, who had been sent by their respective gov- 
ernments to these cities, for the express purpose of being 
educated for teachers in their native countries ; if not for 
the whole people, at least for the favored few. At Con- 
stantinople a society has been formed for the promotion 
of useful knowledge, which publishes a monthly journal, 
edited by one of the Turks, who studied in Paris ; and 
the Sultan now employs a French teacher in his capital, 
whom he especially invited from France. And here too 
in our own country, in the movements of New England, 
New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, and several 
other of the States, we are strongly reminded of the 
educational zeal of the age. 

In short, the whole world seems to be awake, and 
combining in one simultaneous effort for the spread of 
education ; and sad indeed will be the condition of that 
community which lags behind in this universal march. 

But I wish to direct your attention to the influence 
which these wide-spread systems of education in the sov- 
ereignties of Europe, emanating from Prussia, must exert 
on our own institutions. The sovereigns to whom I have 



PUBLIC INSTSUCTION. 11 

alluded are not only educating the people, but they are 
laying aside the pomp, the trappings, and the lavish ex- 
penses of royalty, and by simplicity, by rigid economy, 
by an energetic and impartial administration of the gov- 
ernment, are endeavoring to estabhsh their thrones in the 
hearts of their people. 

Frederick AYilliam, in his dress, appearance, and whole 
deportment, is as simple and unostentatious as an Ohio 
farmer ; and few of our wealthy merchants ride in so plain 
a carriage, or sleep on so homely a bed, as the monarch 
of Prussia. After witnessing the pageantry, the pomp, 
and ostentation of the limited monarchy of England, one 
is astonished at the rigid simplicity of the great military 
despotism of central Europe. 

In every stage of instruction it is made a prominent 
object, and one which is repeatedly and strenuously in- 
sisted on in all the laws pertaining to education, to awaken 
a national spirit — to create in the youthful mind a warm 
attachment to his native land, and its institutions, and to 
fix in his affections a decided preference for the peculiari- 
ties of his own country. Indeed, the whole plan (which 
is well understood toTiave originated in Prussia, when 
the rapid spread of republican principles first began to 
threaten the thrones of Europe) evidently is, to unite with 
the military force which always attends a despotism, a 
strong moral power over the understanding and affections 
of the people. In view of this fact, an able English 
writer denominates the modern kingdom of Prussia, "that 
wonderful machine of State-craft — as a mere machine the 
most remarkable in existence — on the model of which 
most European governments are gradually proceeding to 
reform themselves." Already has this plan so far suc- 
ceeded, that there is evidently in these countries a grow- 
ing disregard for the forms of free government, provided 
the substance be enjoyed in the security and prosperity 
of the people. 

Republicanism can be maintained only by universal 
intelligence and virtue among the people, and disinterest- 
edness and fidelity in the rulers. Republics are consid- 
ered the natural foes to monarchies ; and where both start 



12 ELEMENTARY 

up side by side, it is taken for granted that llie one must 
supplant tlie other. Hence their watchful jealousy of each 
other. Now, when we see monarchies strengthening 
themselves in the manner described, are not republics ex- 
posed to double danger from vice, and neglect of educa- 
tion within themselves ? And do not patriotism, and the 
necessity of self-preservation, call upon us to do more and 
better for the education of our whole people, than any 
despotic sovereign can do for his ? Did we stand alone 
— were there no rival governments on earth — or if we 
were surrounded by despotisms of degraded and ignorant 
slaves, like those of the ancient Oriental world ; even then.) 
without intelligence and virtue in the great mass of the 
people, our liberties would pass from us. How emphati- 
cally must this be the case noiv, when the whole aspect 
of things is changed, and monarchies have actually stolen 
a march upon republics in the promotion of popular intel- 
ligence ! 



EFFORTS FOR EDUCATION IN RUSSIA. 

In a former report, which was printed by order of the 
Legislature, in 1836, I gave a synopsis of the govern- 
mental regulations in Prussia respecting education, and I 
have not found, by investigations on the spot, that the state- 
ments then made require any essential modification. [See 
Appendix A.] I will here, however, take the liberty of 
stating some facts respecting the governmental efforts re- 
cently made in Russia, to establish a sy&tem of popular 
education throughout that vast empire. These cannot 
but be deeply interesting to us, since Russia has so mair, 
points of resemblance, and of striking contrast, to our 
own country. Like the United States, her dominion 
extends, over an immense territory, comprising almost 
every variety of soil, climate, productions, and national 
character. Like ours, her educational institutions are 
comparatively new^and almost every thing is to be be- 
gun in its elementsjjand, like us, she has received great 



PUBLIC INSTRUCTION. 13. 

accessions to her population by emigrants from almost 
every nation of Europe. Russia is unquestionably the 
largest and most powerful of despotisms, as the United 
States is the largest and most powerful of republics : and, 
while we enjoy the greatest political freedom that any 
government has ever permitted, she is held fast by the 
bonds of a severe autocracy. Add to this, Russia is the 
only European government, with the exception of Great 
Britain, whose territories border on our own. The fact,- 
then, that a system of public instruction has been estab- 
lished in the Russian empire, is one of deep interest to us ; 
and no less interesting will it be for us to know something 
of the nature of the system, and of the means by which it 
is carried into operation. 

The general system is that of Prussia, whh such modi- 
fications as are necessary to adapt it to that widely-ex- 
tended, and, in some parts, semi-barbarous empire. For 
example, the whole empire is divided into provinces, 
each of which has a university — these provinces into 
academic districts, which are provided with their gym- 
nasia for classical learning, and academies for the higher 
branches of a business education ; and these academic 
districts are again subdivided into school districts, each 
with its elementary school. As the heart of the whole 
system, there is at St. Petersburgh a model school for 
the education of teachers of every grade, for all parts of 
the empire. Of the universities, six had already gone into 
operation in 1835, namely; one at St. Petersburgh, one 
at Moscow, one at Dorpat, in Livonia, one at Charkow, 
east of the river Dnieper, one at Kasan, on the Wolga, 
and one at Kiew. At other points lyceums are estab- 
lished, with courses of study more limited than that of 
the universities ; and there is an institution at Moscow, 
especially for the education of the nobihty. Of course, 
J shall not be understood as recommending for adop- 
tion by us whatever I speak of with approbation in 
reference to foreign lands ; for the different circum- 
stances of nations require different systems. It is the 
part of a wise legislator to examine all the improvements 
within his reach, and, from the whole, to select those 
2 



14 ELEMENTARY 

parts only which are adapted to the peculiar circumstan- 
ces of the people for whom he legislates. 

The different institutions in Russia are established as 
fast as the circumstances of the people admit, and as teach- 
ers can be found to supply them. At the date of the last 
report of the Minister of Public Instruction, the number 
of elementary and parish schools was about 12,000 — of 
private schools, 430 — and of gymnasia, 67. 

The governmental regulations for cherishing in the peo- 
ple a desire for education, and directing them in the at- 
tainment of it, are wisely adapted to the purpose. The 
Minister of Public Instruction publishes a regular periodi- 
cal journal, in which he gathers up all the facts, informa- 
tion, and arguments, to which his official station gives 
him access, and circulates them extensively through the 
nation. To illustrate the good faith, diligence, and lib- 
eral-mindedness with which he executes this part of his 
office, I would refer to the number of his journal for 
August, 1835, in which he notices, with great approba- 
tion, the efforts of tract societies for the diffusion of moral 
and religious sentiments among the people, and mentions 
by name several publications of the American Tract So- 
ciety, which have been translated into Russian, as having 
reached a third edition, and as being happily calculated 
to enlighten the intellect, and elevate the character of the 
people among whom they circulate. If the Minister of 
the Emperor Nicholas shows so much readiness to receive 
a good thing even from democratic America, we surely 
will not be so narrow-minded as to spurn a good idea be- 
cause it happened first to develope itself in autocratic 
Russia. As a further means of promoting education, 
every school-director and examiner undergoes a rigid 
scrutiny as to his intellectual and moral fitness for those 
important trusts ; and every candidate for civil office is 
strictly examined as to his attainments in those branches 
of learning requisite to the right performance of the official 
duties to which he aspires. As common schools are 
new in the Russian empire, and as school-houses are to 
be built in every part of it, the government, knowing the 
importance of having these houses well planned and put 



PUBLIC INSTRUCTION. 16 

up, has appointed an architect, with a salary of one thou- 
sand rubles a year, for every academic district, whose 
whole business it is to superintend the erecting and fitting 
up of the district school-houses in his particular prov- 
ince. When we recollect how many af the evils of our 
district schools result from the bad construction and 
wretched furniture of our school-houses, how completely, 
by these defects, the efforts of the best teachers may be 
nullified, and the minds and health of children, as well as 
their comfort, destroyed, w^e cannot but acknowledge 
this to be, for a country where every thing is to be begun 
from its foundation, a most judicious arrangement. 

Canals, and other pubhc improvements of this kind, are 
now in great demand, and, to further them, an institution 
has been estabhshed for the express purpose of teaching 
the arts requisite in their construction ; and young men 
who intend to devote themselves to this business, are ta- 
ken from the other schools and placed in this institution 
at the pubhc expense. Special provision, also, is made 
for instruction in agriculture, and all the kindred arts, in 
order that the natural resources of the country may be 
fully developed. That religious instruction may be effi- 
cient, and, at the same time, the rights of conscience re- 
main inviolate, clergymen of different Christian denomi- 
nations, where the circumstances of the people require it, 
are employed as religious teachers in the schools, their 
services compensated by government, and their families 
provided for, if necessary. The importance of female 
teachers is recognised, and every encouragement is held 
out to young ladies to engage in this work. Private 
teachers are subject to the same rules, and the same strict 
inspection, as the teachers of pubhc schools ; and, what 
is an improvement on the Prussian plan, if the teacher of 
a private school becomes superannuated, or dies, in the 
service, his family are entitled to the same privileges as 
that of a public teacher, and receive pensions from the 
government adequate to their support and education. 
Thus all classes of faithful teachers are regarded and treat- 
ed as pubhc benefactors, and considered as entitled, not 
merely to a bare support, while toiling and wearing them- 



16 ELEMENTARY 

selves out in the public service, but to national remem- 
brance and gratitude after their work is done. 

Though the Emperor of Russia is justly accused of 
unpardonable oppression in respect to Poland, yet he 
does not carry his oppression so far as to deprive the poor 
Polanders of the benefits of education, but is exerting the 
same laudable zeal to provide teachers for Poland as for 
any other part of his dominions. It has been found ex- 
ceedingly difficult to obtain teachers who are willing to 
exercise their calling in the cold and inhospitable regions 
of Siberia. To facilitate this object, special privileges 
have been granted to Siberian teachers. Siberian young 
men are admitted to the University of Kasan free of ex- 
pense, on condition that they devote a certain number of 
years to the business of school-keeping in Siberia. To 
forward the same object, a Siberian gentleman, by the 
name of Ponomarew, gives six thousand rubles a year for 
the support of the parish schools of Irkutzk, quite to the 
northeastern extremity of Siberia, and has obligated him- 
self, for ten years, to pay five hundred rubles a year more, 
for the encouragement of the pupils of those schools. 

Teachers from foreign countries are welcomed, and 
special provision is made that their religious sentiments 
be not interfered with, as well as that they do not impose 
their peculiar religious notions on their pupils. For the 
perfecting of teachers in certain branches, they are often 
sent abroad, at the pubhc expense, to study in the insti- 
tutions of other countries, where these branches are most 
successfully taught. Of these, there were, in 1835, thir- 
teen in Berlin, several in Vienna, and one in Oxford, 
England. School-examiners and school-committees, as 
well as school-teachers, are required to hold frequent 
meetings for discussion, and for mutual instruction and 
encouragement. 

It is the policy of the Minister of Public Instruction, 
not to crowd the schools with too many pupils, but to fur- 
nish as many teachers as possible, particularly in the high- 
er institutions, that each individual scholar may receive a 
due share of attention. x\s an illustration, I will refer to 
some of the universities. The University of St. Peters- 



PUBLIC INSTRUCTION. 17 

burgh has two hundred and thirty pupils, and fifty-two 
officers and teachers, or one teacher to every four or five 
students. At Moscow, four hundred and fifty-six stu- 
dents, one hundred and sixty-eight teachers and officers, 
or one to every two or three students. That of Kasan, 
seventy officers and teachers, to two hundred and thirty- 
eight students, or- one to every three or four students. 
That at Kiew, forty-three officers and teachers, to sixty- 
two students, or nearly as many of the one as the other. 
1 would remark, however, that some of the teachers are 
merely lecturers on particular branches, and take no ac- 
tive part in the discipline or instruction of the institution, 
and a few attend only to its business concerns. Some 
of the universities, also, are not full, the institutions being 
new, and a full corps of teachers being appointed at the 
commencement. With all these allowances, however, 
we may set it down as a principle, that in the universities, 
it is intended that there shall be one teacher at least to 
every eight or ten students. This may be going to ex- 
cess, but it is certain that the ambition to multiply stu- 
dents beyond all the means of teaching, has been a great 
injury to education in American institutions. Education 
can never be what it is capable of being, unless the teach- 
er can command time to become familiar with each indi- 
vidual mind under his care, and to adapt his mode of 
teaching to its peculiarities. To instruct only in masses, 
and to apply the same methods of instruction to all, is like 
throwing the drugs of an apothecary's shop into one great 
caldron, stirring them together, and giving every patient 
in the hospital a portion of the mixture. 

It is peculiarly interesting, in noticing the efforts of 
Russia, to observe that the blessings of a good common- 
school education are now extended to tribes which from 
time immemorial have been in a state of barbarism. In 
the wild regions beyond mount Caucasus, comprising the 
provinces recently acquired from Persia, the system of 
district schools is efficiently carried out. As early as 
1835, there were already estabhshed in those parts of the 
empire fifteen schools, with sixty teachers, and about one 
thousand three hundred children under instruction ; so 
2* 



18 ELEMENTARY 

that, In the common schools of this new and uncultivated 
region, one teacher is provided for every twenty schol- 
ars. Besides this, there Is a gymnasium at TIfflis, In 
which Asiatic lads are fitted to enter the European uni- 
versities. 

All teachers, throughout the empire, according to an 
ordinance of February 26, 1835, receive their salaries 
monthly, that their attention may not be distracted by 
family cares. For the encouragement of entire devoted- 
ness on the part of teachers, and to prevent all solicitude 
for the maintenance of their families, the Minister of Pub- 
lic Instruction Is authorized to grant to the widows and 
orphans of those teachers who have particularly distin- 
guished themselves, not only the usual pension, but a 
gratuity equal In amount to an entire salary of two years. 

The officers of government employed In the distant 
provinces of the empire, in the distant parts of Siberia, 
-and on the borders of Persia, complained that their re- 
mote location deprived their children of the advantages of 
the gymnasia and universities which others enjoyed. To 
obviate this Inconvenience, and to equalise as far as pos- 
sible the advantages of education, the children of these 
officers are taken to the nearest gymnasium or university, 
and their travelling expenses defrayed by government. 
All the Institutions of education are subject to the same 
rigorous examination as In Prussia, and the Minister of 
Public Instruction Is, ex officio, chairman of the board of 
examiners for the universities. As the duties of this 
office have become very laborious, the government, in 
addition to a liberal supply of other helps. In 1835 appoint- 
ed General Count Protassow, who had for some time 
acted as a school-director, Assistant Minister of Public 
Instruction. 

I have already mentioned the model institution for 
teachers at St. Petersburgh. In 1835, seventy-six teach- 
ers were graduated, and the number is every year increas- 
ing. Under the Influence of this school, and other gov- 
ernmental arrangements, the methods of teaching are 
continually improving; and. In his Report for 1835, the 
Minister observes, that the moral improvement of both 



PUBLIC INSTRUCTION. 19 

teachers and pupils Is such as to encourage the most pleas- 
ing hopes, that, within the last two years, the national 
interest in the subject of education has very greatly increas- 
ed, and that it has now become a matter of the deepest 
interest to the whole people ; and that, as to the methods 
of instruction, the old mechanical memoriter mode is 
continually giving way to the system of developing the 
faculties. Many facts are stated in the Report, which 
confirm the Minister's remark in respect to the growing 
interest in the minds of the Russian people on the subject 
of education, illustrating the important fact, that among 
whatever people a good system of instruction is efficient- 
ly carried out, a deep and general interest will be excited. 
The nobles and the commons appear to emulate each 
other in the advancement of this cause. The nobility of 
Novgorod voluntarily contribute more than twelve thou- 
sand rubles a year for the gymnasium in that place, and 
at Wologda the nobility contribute for a similar object 
nine thousand a year. At Cronstadt, the citizens volun- 
teered to sustain a school at their own expense. At an- 
other place, on the shores of the White Sea, the citizens 
have not only volunteered to maintain the school, but have 
also, of their own accord, entered into an obligation to 
erect a large and handsome stone building for the accom- 
modation of the teachers and scholars. This was brought 
about by the zeal and activity of a single individual, whose 
name, though a barbarous one, ought here to be mention- 
ed — WassiHgi Kologriew. This gentleman volunteered 
as an agent to promote the cause of education in the place 
of his residence, and, besides giving his time and efforts, 
bore an equal share in all the expenses, and in addition, 
made a distinct donation of twenty-five hundred rubles for 
the advancement of the cause. 

Another gentleman at Archangel, by the name of Ko- 
walewsky, made a journey to a distant neighborhood 
inhabited by Samoiedes, Sirianes, and other half-barba- 
rous tribes, to explain to them the advantages of education, 
and endeavor to establish a school among them. In this 
he was warmly seconded by the clergyman of the place ; 
and, as the result of it, a single peasant or farmer, by the 



20 ELEMENTARY 

name of Anupbriew, engaged to support the school entire- 
ly for two years, and afier that to contribute three hundred 
rubles a year for five years longer ; and in addition to this 
he contributed fifteen hundred rubles for the erection of a 
school-house. The chief magistrate of the place also con- 
tributed, and, allured by these examples, the Sirianes put 
down nearly fifteen thousand rubles ; and as soon as the 
requisite preparations could be made, the school w^as open- 
ed, with great solemnity and appropriate ceremonies, in the 
midst of an immense concourse of intensely-interested 
spectators. I shall be greatly disappointed if we cannot find 
in Ohio, enlightened men in our cities, and farmers in the 
country, willing to do as much for education as the gen- 
tleman of Archangel, and the hard-working peasant In the 
frozen regions of northern Russia. 

A merchant by the name of Pluessin, in Lialsk, made 
a donation of ten thousand rubles for the foundation of a 
district school in that place, and offered, in addition, to 
have the school kept in his own house, and to furnish it 
with firewood for three years. Tschistow, a citizen of 
Moscow, gave twenty-three hundred rubles for the pur- 
chase pf school-books, to be distributed among the poor 
children of the first school district in that city. 

Numerous other instances might be mentioned of dona- 
tions from persons in all ranks in society — in money, 
books, houses, fuel, or whatever they had it in their pow- 
er to give for the support of schools ; but the above may 
be sufficient to show the spirit of the people, and excite us 

^to emulation. 

It must be observed, that the government makes provis- 
ion for the maintenance of all the district schools, gymna- 

. sia, and universitiesj^' and that this liberality of private 
citizens arises from pure zeal for the cause, and is applied 
to the extending and increasing the advantages derived 
from governmental patronage, to the purchase of books and 
clothing for the poorer children, the establishment of 
school libraries, and the providing of suitable rewards for 
meritorious teachers and pupils, and securing the means 
of access to the school-house, and proper furniture for it. 
Every effort is made to provide a plentiful supply of good 



PUBLIC INSTRUCTION. 21 

school-books, and to establish suitable hbraries for the 
use of teachers. Quite recently, a Russian lady, a Miss 
DarzofF, received from the government a premium of 
twenty-five hundred rubles for compiling a little work, 
entitled 'Useful Readings for Children.' 

In view of such facts as these, who is not ready to ex- 
claim, " Well done, cold, semi-barbarous, despotic Rus- 
sia ! — may other nations, more favored by Nature and 
Providence, emulate thy example !" 

INTERNAL ARRANGEMENTS OF THE PRUS- 
SIAN SCHOOLS. 

I WILL now ask your attention to a few facts respecting 
the internal management of the schools in Prussia and 
some other parts of Germany, which were impressed on 
my mind by a personal inspection of those establishments. 

One of the circumstances that interested me most, was 
the excellent order and rigid economy with which all the 
Prussian institutions are conducted. Particularly in large 
boarding-schools, where hundreds, and sometimes thou- 
sands of youth are collected together, the benefits of the 
system are strikingly manifest. Every boy is taught to 
wait upon himself — to keep^his person, clothing, furniture, 
and books, in perfect order and neatness ; and no extrava- 
gance in dress, and no waste of fuel or food, or property 
of any kind, is permitted^ _( Each student has his own 
single bed, which is generally a light mattress, laid upon 
a frame of slender bars of iron, because such bedsteads 
are not likely to be infested by insects, and each one 
makes his own bed and keeps it in order. In the house, 
there is a place for every thing, and every thing must be 
in its place. In one closet are the shoe-brushes and 
blacking, in another the lamps and oil, in another the fuel. 
At the doors are good mats and scrapers, and every thing 
of the kind necessary for neatness and comfort, and 
every student is taught, as carefully as he is taught any 
other lesson, to make a proper use of all these articles 
at the right time, and then to leave them in good order 
at their proper places. Every instance of neglect is sure 
to receive its appropriate reprimand, and, if necessary, 



22 ELEMENTARY 

severe punishment. I know of nothing that can benefit 
us more than the introduction of such oft-repeated lessons 
an carefuhiess and frugahty into all our educational estab- 
lishments ; for the contrary habits of carelessness and 
wastefulness, notwithstanding all the advantages which we 
enjoy, have already done us immense mischief. Very 
many of our families waste and throw away nearly as 
much as they use ; and one third of the expenses of 
housekeeping might be saved by system and frugality. It 
is true, we have such an abundance of every thing, that 
this enormous waste is not so sensibly felt as it would be 
in a more densely populated region ; but it is not always 
to be so with us. The productions of our country, for 
some years past, have by no means kept pace with tlie 
increase of consumption, and many an American family 
during the last season has felt a hard pressure, where they 
never expected to feel one. 

Especially should this be made a branch of female edu- 
cation, and studied faithfully and perseveringly by all who 
are to be wives and mothers, and have the care of famihes. 

The universal success also, and very beneficial results, 
w^ith which the arts of drawing and designing, vocal and 
instrumental music, moral instruction and the Bible, have 
been introduced into schools, was another fact peculiarly 
interesting to me. I asked all the teachers with whom I 
conversed, w^hether they did not sometimes find children 
who were actually incapable of learning to draw and to 
sing. I have had but one reply ; and that was, that they 
found the same diversity of natural talent in regard to these 
as in regard to reading, WTiting, and the other branches of 
education ; but they had never seen a child who was ca- 
pable of learning to read and write, who could not be 
taught to sing well and draw neatly, and that too vrithout 
taking any time which would at all interfere with, indeed, 
which would not actually promote, his progress in other 
studies. In regard to the necessity of moral instruction, 
and the beneficial influence of the Bible in schools, the 
testimony was no less explicit and uniform. I inquired 
of all classes of teachers, and of men of every grade of 
rehgious faith, instructers in common schools, high schools, 



PUBLIC INSTRUCTION. 23 

and schools of art, of professors in colleges, universities, 
and professional seminaries, in cities and in the country, 
in places where there was a uniformity and in places where 
was a diversity of creeds, of believers and unbelievers, of 
rationalists and enthusiasts, of Catholics and Protestants^; 
and I never found but one reply ; and that was, that to 
leave the moral faculty uninstructed was to leave the most 
important part of the human mind undeveloped, and to 
strip education of almost every thing that can make it 
valuable ; and that the Bible, independently of the inter- 
est attending it, as containing the most ancient and influ- 
ential writings ever recorded by human hands, and com- 
prising the religious system of almost the whole of the 
civilized world, is in itself the best book that can be put 
into the hands of children to interest, to exercise, and to 
unfold their intellectual and moral powers. Every teacher 
whom I consulted, repelled Vv^ith indignation the idea that 
moral instruction is not proper for schools ; and spurned 
with contempt the allegation, that the Bible cannot be 
introduced into common schools without encouraging a 
sectarian bias in the matter of teaching ; an indignation 
and contempt which I believe will be fully participated 
in by every high-minded teacher in Christendom. 

A few instances, to illustrate the above-mentioned gen- 
eral statements, I here subjoin : — Early in September I 
visited the Orphan-House at Halle, an institution founded 
by the benevolence of Franke, about the year 1700, and 
which has been an object of special favor with the present 
King of Prussia. It now contains from twenty-seven 
hundred to three thousand boys, most of them orphans, 
sustained by charity. After examining its extensive 
grounds, its commodious and neat buildings, its large book- 
store, its noble printing-establishment, for printing the 
Bible in the oriental and modern languages, its large 
apothecary's shop, for the dispensation of medicine to 
the poor, and the exquisitely beautiful statue of its found- 
er, erected by Frederick WiUiam III., I was invited by 
Drs. Guerike and Netto to go into the dining-hall and see 
the boys partake of their supper. The hall is a very long 
and narrow room, and furnished the whole length of each 



24 ELEMENTARY 

side with short tables, Hke the mess-tables on board a man 
of-war, each table accommodating about twelve boys. 
The tables were without cloths, but very clean, and were 
provided with httle pewter basins of warm soup, and just 
as many pieces of dark and coarse, but very wholesome, 
bread, as there were to be boys at the table. When the 
bell rang, the boys entered in a very quiet and orderly 
manner, each with a little pewter spoon in his hand. 
When they had arranged themselves at table, at a sig- 
nal from the teacher, one of the boys ascended a pulpit, 
near the centre of the hall, and, in the most appropriate 
manner, suppHcated the blessing of God upon their frugal 
repast. The boys then each took his bit of bread in one 
hand, and, with his spoon in the other, made a very quiet 
and healthful meal. They then united in singing two or 
three verses of a hymn, and retired in the same quiet and 
orderly manner in which they had entered. It being warm 
weather, they were dressed in jackets and trousers of 
clean, coarse brown linen ; and a more cheerful, healthy, 
intelligent set of youthful faces and glistening eyes I never 
saw before ; and notwithstanding the gravity with which 
they partook of their supper and left the hall, when fairly 
in the yard, there was such a pattering of httle feet, such 
a chattering of German, and such skipping and playing, 
as satisfied me that none of their boyish spirits had been 
broken by the disciphne of the school. 

At Weissenfels, near Lutzen, where the great battle 
was fought in the Thirty Years' War, there is a collection 
of various schools, under the superintendence of Dr. Har- 
nisch, in what was formerly a large convent. Among the 
rest there is one of those institutions peculiar to Prussia, 
in which the children of very destitute families are taken 
and educated at the public expense, to become teachers in 
poor villages, where they can never expect to receive a 
large compensation : institutions of a class which we do 
not need here^ because no villages in this country need be 
poor. Of course, though they have all the advantages 
of scientific advancement enjoyed in the most favored 
schools, frugahty and self-denial form an important part 
of their education. Dr. Harnisch invited me to this part 



PUBLIC INSTRUCTION. 25 

of the establishment, to see these boys dine. When I 
came to the room, they were sitting at their writing-tables, 
engaged in their studies, as usual. At the ringing of the 
bell they arose. Some of the boys left the room, and 
the others removed the papers and books from the tables, 
and laid them away in their places. Some of the boys 
who had gone out then re-entered, with clean, coarse 
table-cloths in their hands, which they spread over their 
writing-tables. These were followed by others with loaves 
of brown bread, and plates provided with cold meat and 
sausages, neatly cut in slices, and jars of water, which 
they arranged on the table. Of these materials, after a 
short religious service, they made a cheerful and hearty 
meal ; then arose, cleared away their tables, swept their 
room, and, after a suitable season of recreation, resumed 
their studies. They are taught to take care of themselves, 
independent of any help ; and their only luxuries are the 
fruits and plants which they cultivate with their own hands, 
and which grow abundantly in the gardens of the institu- 
tion. 

INSTITUTIONS FOR REFORMATION. 

At Berlin, I visited an establishment for the reforma- 
tion of youthful offenders. Here boys are placed who 
have committed offences that bring them under the super- 
vision of the police, to be instructed, and rescued from 
vice, instead of being hardened in iniquity by living in the 
common prison with old offenders. It is under the care 
of Dr. Kopf, a most simple-hearted, excellent old gentle- 
man ; just such a one as reminds us of the ancient Chris- 
tians, who lived in the times of the persecution, simplicity, 
and purity, of the Christian church. He has been very 
successful in reclaiming the young offender, and many a 
one, who would otherwise have been for ever lost, has, by 
the influence of this institution, been saved to himself, to 
his country, and to God. It is a manual-labor school ; 
and to a judicious intermingling of study and labor, reli- 
gious instruction, kind treatment, and necessary severity, 
it has owed its success. When I was there, most of the 
3 



26 ELEMENTARY 

boys were employed in cutting screws for the railroad 
which the government was then constructing between Ber- 
lin and Leipsic ; and there were but few who could not 
maintain themselves by their labor. As I was passing 
with Dr. K. from room to room, I heard some beautiful 
voices singing in an adjoining apartment, and on entering 
I found about twenty of the boys, sitting at a long table, 
making clothes for the establishment, and singing at their 
work. The Doctor enjoyed my surprise, and, on going 
out, remarked, '' I always keep these little rogues singing 
at their work, for while the children sing, the devil cannot 
come among them at all ; he can only sit out doors there 
and growl ; but if they stop singing, in the devil comes." 
The Bible and the singing of religious hymns, are among 
the most efficient instruments which he employs for soft- 
ening the hardened heart, and bringing the vicious and 
stubborn will to docility. 

A similar establishment in the neighborhood of Ham- 
burgh, to which I was introduced by Dr. Julius, who is 
known to many of our citizens, afforded striking examples 
of the happy influence of moral and religious instruction, 
in reclaiming the vicious and saving the lost. Hamburgh 
is the' largest commercial city of Germany, and its popu- 
lation is extremely crowded. Though it is highly distin- 
guished for its benevolent institutions, and for the hospi- 
tality and integrity of its citizens, yet the very circumstances 
in which it is placed, produce, among the lowest class of 
its population, habits of degradation and beastliness of 
which we have but few examples on this side the Atlantic. 
The children, therefore, received into this institution, are 
often of the very worst and most hopeless character. 
Not only are their minds most thoroughly depraved, but 
their very senses and bodily organization seem to partake 
in the viciousness and degradation of their hearts. Their 
appetites are so perverted, that sometimes the most loath- 
some and disgusting substances are preferred to wholesome 
food. The superintendent, Mr. Wichern, states, that 
though plentifully supplied with provisions, yet, when first 
received, some of them will steal and eat soap, rancid 
grease, that has been laid aside for the purpose of greas- 



PUBLIC INSTRUCTION. 27 

ing shoes, and even catch May-bugs and devour them • 
and it is with the utmost difficulty that these disgusting 
habits are broken up. An ordinary man might suppose 
that the task of restoring such poor creatures to decency 
and good morals was entirely hopeless. Not so with Mr. 
Wichern. He took hold with the firm hope that the 
moral power of the word of God is competent even to 
such a task. His means are prayer, the Bible, singing, 
affectionate conversation, severe punishment when una- 
voidable, and constant, steady employment, in useful 
labor. On one occasion, when every other means seemed 
to fail, he collected the children together, and read to 
them, in the words of the New Testament, the simple 
narrative of the suflerings and death of Christ, with some 
remarks on the design and object of his mission to this 
world. The effect was wonderful. They burst into 
tears of contrition ; and during the whole of that term, 
from June till October, the influence of this scene was 
visible in all their conduct. The idea that takes so strong 
a hold when the character of Christ is exhibited to such 
poor creatures, is, that they are objects of affection ; mis- 
erable, wicked, despised as they are, yet Christ, the Son 
of God, loved them, and loved them enough to suffer and 
to die for them — and still loves them. The thought that 
they can yet be loved, melts the heart, and gives them 
hope, and is a strong incentive to reformation. 

On another occasion, when considerable progress had 
been made in their moral education, the superintendent 
discovered that some of them had taken nails from the 
premises, and applied them to their own use, without 
permission. He called them together, expressed his 
great disappointment and sorrow that they had profited so 
little by the instructions which had been given them, and 
told them that, till he had evidence of their sincere re- 
pentance, he could not admit them to the morning and 
evening religious exercises of his family. With expres- 
sions of deep regret for their sin, and with promises, en- 
treaties, and tears, they begged to have this privilege 
restored to them ; but he w^as firm in his refusal. A few 
evenings afterwards, while walking in the garden, he heard 



2S ELEMENTARY 

youthful voices among the shrubbery ; and, drawing near 
unperceived, he found that the boys had formed them- 
selves into little companies of seven or eight each, and 
met, morning and evening, in different retired spots in the 
garden, to sing, read the Bible, and pray among them- 
selves ; to ask God to forgive them the sins they had 
committed, and to give them strength to resist temptation 
in future. With such evidence of repentance, he soon 
restored to them the privilege of attending morning and 
evening prayers with his family. One morning soon after, 
on entering his study, he found it all adorned with wreaths 
of the most beautiful flowers, which the boys had arranged 
there at early daybreak, in testimony of their joy and 
gratitude for his kindness. Thus rapidly had these poor 
creatures advanced in moral feeling, religious sensibility, 
and good taste. 

In the spring Mr. Wichern gives to each boy a patch 
of ground in the garden, which he is to call his own, and 
cultivate as he pleases. One of the boys began to erect 
a little hut of sticks and earth upon his plot, in which he 
might rest during the heat of the day, and to which he 
might retire when he wished to be alone. When it was 
all finished, it occurred to him to dedicate it to its use by 
religious ceremonies. Accordingly, he collected the 
boys together. The hut was adorned with wreaths of 
flowers ; a little table was placed in the centre, on which 
lay the open Bible, ornamented in the same manner. He 
then read with great seriousness the 14th, 15th, and 24th 
verses of the cxviiith Psalm : 

** The Lord is my strength and my song, and is become my salva- 
tion." 

*' The voice of rejoicing and salvation is heard in the tabernacles of 
the righteous." 

" This is the day which the Lord hath made. We will rejoice and 
be glad in it." 

After this, the exercises were concluded by singing and 
prayer. Another boy afterwards built him a hut, which 
was to be dedicated in a similar way ; but when the boys 
came together, they saw in it a piece of timber which 
belonged to the estabhshment, and ascertaining that it had 



PUBLIC INSTRUCTION. 2i 

been taken without permission, they at once demolished 
the whole edifice, and restored the timber to its place. 
At the time of harvest, when they first entered the field 
to gather the potatoes, before commencing the work, they 
formed into a circle, and, much to the surprise of the 
superintendent, broke out together into the harvest hymn : 

**Now let us all thank God." 

After singing this, they fell to their work with great 
cheerfulness and vigor. 

I mention these instances, from numerous others which 
might be produced, to show how much may be done in 
reclaiming the most hopeless youthful offenders by a judi- 
cious application of the right means of moral influence. 
How short-sighted and destructive, then, is the policy 
which would exclude such influence from our public in- 
stitutions ! The same effects have been produced by 
houses of reformation in our own country. I would 
mention, as one instance, the institution of Mr. Welles, 
in Massachusetts. 

Now, laying aside all considerations of benevolence 
and of religious obligation, is it not for the highest good 
of the State, that these minds should be withdrawn from 
vice, and trained up to be enlightened and useful citizens, 
contributing a large share to the public wealth, virtue, 
and happiness ; rather than that they should come forward 
in life miserable criminals, of no use to themselves or 
the public, depredating on the property and violating the 
rights of the industrious citizens, increasing the public 
burdens by their crimes, endangering the well-being of 
society, and undermining our liberties ? They can be 
either the one or the other, according as we choose to 
educate them ourselves in the right way, or leave them 
to be educated by the thieves and drunkards in our streets, 
or the convicts in our prisons. The efforts made by 
some foreign nations to educate this part of their popula- 
tion, is a good lesson for us. All the schools and houses 
of reformation in Prussia, do not cost the government so 
much as old England is obliged to expend in prisons and 
constables for the regulation of that part of her popula- 
3* 



30 ELEMENTARF 

tion, for which the government provides no schools but 
the hulks and the jails ; and I leave it to any one to say 
which arrangement produces the greatest amount of pub- 
lic happiness. 

When I was in Berlin I went into the public prison, 
and visited every part of the establishment. At last I 
was introduced to a very large hall, which was full of 
children, with their books and teachers, and having all 
the appearance of a common Prussian school-room. 
" What !" said I, " is it possible that all these children 
are imprisoned here for crime ?" " O no," said my con- 
ductor, smiling at my simplicity ; " but if a parent is im- 
prisoned for crime, and on that account his children are 
left destitute of the means of education, and hable to 
grow up in ignorance and crime, the government has 
them taken here, and maintained and educated for useful 
employment." The thought brought tears to my eyes. 
This was a new idea to me. I know not that it has ever 
been suggested in the United States ; but surely it is the 
duty of government, as well as its highest interest, when 
a man is paying the penalty of his crime in a public pris- 
on, to see that his unoffending children are not left to 
suffer, and to inherit their father's vices. Surely it would 
be better for the child, and cheaper^ as well as better, for 
the State. Let it not be supposed that a man would go 
to prison for the sake of having his children taken care 
of, for they who go to prison usually have little regard 
for their children ; and, if they had, discipline like that 
of the Berlin prison would soon sicken them of such a 
bargain. 

Where education is estimated according to its real 
value, people are willing to expend money for the sup- 
port of schools ; and, if necessary, to deny themselves 
some physical advantages for the sake of giving their chil- 
dren the blessings of moral and intellectual culture. In 
the government of Baden, four per cent, of all the pub- 
lic expense is for education. They have a school, with 
an average of two or three well-qualified teachers, to 
every three miles of territory, and every one hundred 
children ; and that, too, when the people are so poor 



PUBLIC INSTRUCTION. 31 

that they can seldom afford any other food than dry bar- 
ley-bread, and a farmer considers it a luxury to be able 
to allow his family the use of butter-milk three or four 
times a year. In Prussia, palaces and convents are ev- 
ery where turned into houses of education ; and accom- 
modations originally provided for princes and bishops are 
not considered too good for the schoolmaster and his 
pupils. But, though occupying palaces, they have no 
opportunity to be idle or luxurious. Hard labor and fru- 
gal living are every where the indispensable conditions to 
a teacher's life, and I must say that I have no particular 
wish that it should be otherwise ; for it is only those who 
are willing to work hard and live frugally, that ever do 
much good in such a world as this. 

I pass now to the consideration of a question of the 
deepest interest to us all, and that is. Can the common 
schools in our State be made adequate to the wants of 
our population ? I do not hesitate to answer this ques- 
tion decidedly in the affirmative ; and to show that I give 
this answer on good grounds, I need only to state the 
proper object of education, and lay before you what is 
actually now done towards accomplishing this object in 
the common schools of Prussia and Wirtemberg. 

What is the proper object of education ? The proper 
object of education is a thorough developement of all the 
intellectual and moral powers — the awakening and calling 
forth of every talent that may exist, even in the remotest 
and obscurest corner of the State, and giving it a useful 
direction. A system that will do this, and such a system 
only, do I consider adequate to the wants of our popula- 
tion ; such a system, and such a system only, can avert 
all the evils and produce all the benefits which our com- 
mon schools were designed to avert and produce. True, 
such a system must be far more extensive and complete 
than any now in operation among us — teachers must be 
more numerous, skilful, persevering, and self-denying — 
parents must take greater interest in the schools, and do 
more for their support — and the children must attend 
punctually and regularly, till the whole prescribed course 
is completed. All this can be done, and I hope will be 



32 ELEMENTARY 

done ; and to show that the thing is really practicable, I 
now ask your attention to the course of instruction in the 
common schools of Prussia and Wirtemberg, and other 
European States, which have done the most in the matter 
of public instruction. 

COURSE OF INSTRUCTION IN THE COMMON 
SCHOOLS OF PRUSSIA AND WIRTEMBERG. 

The whole course comprises eight years, and includes 
children from the ages of six to fourteen ; and it is divi- 
ded into four parts, of two years each. It is a first prin- 
ciple, that the children be well accommodated as to house 
and furniture. The school-room must be well construct- 
ed, the seats convenient, and the scholars made comfort- 
able, and kept interested. The younger pupils are kept 
at school but four hours in the day — two in the morning 
and two in the evening, with a recess at the close of each 
hour. The older, six hours, broken by recesses as often 
as is necessary. Most of the school-houses have a bath- 
ing-place, a garden, and a mechanic's shop attached to 
them, to promote the cleanliness and health of the chil- 
dren, and to aid in mechanical and agricultural instruction. 
It will be seen by the schedule which follows, that a vast 
amount of instruction is given during these eight years ; 
and lest it should seem that so many branches must con- 
fuse the young mind, and that they must necessarily be 
but partially taught, I will say, in the outset, that the 
industry, skill, and energy of teachers regularly trained 
to their business, and depending entirely upon it ; the 
modes of teaching ; the habit of always finishing what- 
ever is begun ; the perfect method which is preserved ; 
the entire punctuality and regularity of attendance on the 
part of the scholars ; and other things of this kind, facili- 
tate a rapidity and exactness of acquisition and discipline, 
which may well seem incredible to those who have never 
witnessed it. 

The greatest care is taken that acquisition do not go 
beyond discipline ; and that the taxation of mind be kept 
entirely and clearly within the constitutional capacity of 



PUBLIC INSTRUCTION. SS 

mental and physical endurance. The studies must never 
weary, but always interest ; the appetite for knowledge 
must never be cloyed, but be kept always sharp and 
eager. These purposes are greatly aided by the frequent 
interchange of topics, and by lively conversational exer- 
cises. Before the child is even permitted to learn his 
letters, he is under conversational instruction, frequently 
for six months or a year ; and then a single week is suffi- 
cient to introduce him into intelhgible and accurate plain 
reading. 

Every week is systematically divided, and every hour 
appropriated. The scheme for the week is written on a 
large sheet of paper, and fixed in a prominent part of the 
school-room, so that every scholar knows what his busi- 
ness will be for every hour in the week ; and the plan 
thus marked out is rigidly followed. As a specimen, I 
present, in Appendix D., a study-sheet, given me by Dr. 
Diesterweg, of Berlin, and which was the plan for his 
school when I visited it, in September, 1836. 

Through all the parts of the course there are frequent 
reviews and repetitions, that the impressions left on the 
mind may be distinct, lively, and permanent. The ex- 
ercises of the day are always commenced and closed with 
a short prayer ; and the Bible and hymn-book are the 
first volumes put into the pupils' hands ; and these books 
they always retain and keep in constant use during the 
whole progress of their education. 

The general outline of the eight years' course is nearly 
as follows : 

I. First part, of two years, including children from 
six to eight years old — four principal branches, namely : 

1. Logical exercises, or oral teaching in the exercise 
of the powers of observation and expression, including 
religious instruction and the singing of hymns. 

2. Elements of reading. 

3. Elements of writing. 

4. Elements of number, or arithmetic. 

II. Second part, of two years, including children 
from eight to ten years old — seven principal branches, 
namely : 



34 ELEMENTARY 

1. Exercises in reading. 

2. Exercises in writing. 

3. Religious and moral instruction, in select Bible nar- 
ratives. 

4. Language, or grammar. 

5. Numbers, or arithmetic. 

6. Doctrine of space and form, or geometry. 

7. Singing by note, or elements of music. 

III. Third part, of two years, including children 
from ten to twelve years old — eight principal branches^ 
namely : 

1. Exercises in reading and elocution. 

2. Exercises in ornamental writing, preparatory to 
drawing. 

3. Religious instruction in the connected Bible history. 

4. Language, or grammar, with parsing. 

5. Real instruction, or knowledge of Nature and the 
external world, including the first elements of the sciences 
and the arts of life — of geography and history. 

6. Arithmetic, continued through fractions and the 
rules of proportion. 

7. Geometry — doctrine of magnitudes and measures. 

8. Singing, and science of vocal and instrumental 
music. 

IV. Fourth part, of two years, including children 
from twelve to fourteen years old — six principal branches, 
namely : 

1. Religious instruction in the religious observation of 
Nature ; the life and discourses of Jesus Christ ; the his- 
tory of the Christian religion, in connexion with the contem- 
porary civil history ; and the doctrines of Christianity. 

2. Knowledge of the world, and of mankind, including 
civil society, elements of law, agriculture, mechanic arts, 
manufactures, &c. 

3. Language, and exercises in composition. 

4. Application of arithmetic and the mathematics to 
the business of life, including surveying and civil en- 
gineering. 

5. Elements of drawing. 

6. Exercises in singing, and the science of music. 



PUBLIC INSTRUCTION. 35 

We subjoin a few specimens of the mode of teaching 
under several of the above divisions. 

I. First part — children from six to eight years of age. 

1. Conversations between the teacher and pupils, in- 
tended to exercise the powers of observation and ex- 
pression. 

The teacher brings the children around him, and en- 
gages them in familiar conversation with himself. He 
generally addresses them all together, and they all reply 
simultaneously ; but, whenever necessary, he addresses 
an individual, and requires the individual to answer alone. 
He first directs their attention to the different objects in 
the school-room, their position, form, color, size, materi- 
als of which they are made, &c., and requires precise 
and accurate descriptions. He then requires them to 
notice the various objects that meet their eye in the way 
to their respective homes ; and a description of these 
objects, and the circumstances under which they saw them, 
will form the subject of the next morning's lesson. Then 
the house in which they live, the shop in which their 
father works, the garden in which they walk, &c., will be 
the subject of the successive lessons ; and in this way, 
for six months or a year, the children are taught to study 
things J to use their own powers of observation, and speak 
with readiness and accuracy, before books are put into 
their hands at all. A few specimens will make the na- 
ture and utility of this mode of teaching perfectly obvious. 

In a school in Berlin, a boy has assigned him for a 
lesson, a description of the remarkable objects in certain 
directions from the school-house, which is situated in 
Little Cathedral street. He proceeds as follows : " When 
I come out of the school-house into Little Cathedral 
street, and turn to the right, I soon pass on my left hand 
the Maria Place, the Gymnasium, and the Anklam Gate. 
When I come out of Little Cathedral street, I see on 
my left hand the White Parade Place, and within that, at 
a little distance, the beautiful statue of Frederick the Great, 
King of Prussia. It is made of white marble, and stands 



36 ELEMENTARY 

on a pedestal of variegated marble, and is fenced in with 
an iron railing. From here, I have on my right a small 
place, which is a continuation of the Parade Place ; and 
at the end of this, near the wall, I see St. Peter's Church, 
or the Wall-street Church, as it is sometimes called. 
This church has a green yard before it, planted with trees, 
which is called the Wall Church-Yard. St. Peter's 
Church is the oldest church in the city ; it has a little 
round tower, which looks green, because it is mostly cov- 
ered with copper, which is made green by exposure to the 
weather. When I go out of the school-house to the 
lower part of Little Cathedral street, by the Coal-market, 
through Shoe-street and Carriage-street, I come to the 
Castle. The Castle is a large building, with two small 
towers, and is built around a square yard, which is called 
the Castle-yard. In the Castle there are two churches, 
and the King and his Ministers of State, and the Judges 
of the Supreme Court, and the Consistory of the Church, 
hold their meetings there. From the Coal-market, I go 
through Shoe-street to the Hay-market, and adjoining 
this is the New-market, which was formed after St. 
Nicholas's Church was burnt, which formerly stood in 
that place. Between the Hay-market and the New-mar- 
ket is the City Hall, where the officers and magistrates 
of the city hold their meetings." 

If a garden is given to a class for a lesson, they are 
asked the size of the garden ; its shape, which they may 
draw on a slate with a pencil ; whether there are trees in 
it ; what the different parts of a tree are ; what parts 
grow in the spring, and what parts decay in autumn, and 
what parts remain the same throughout the winter ; wheth- 
er any of the trees are fruit-trees ; what fruits they bear ; 
when they ripen ; how they look and taste ; whether 
the fruit be wholesome or otherwise ; whether it is prudent 
to eat much of it ; what plants and roots there are in the 
garden, and what use is made of them ; what flowers 
there are, and how they look, &c. The teacher may 
then read them the description of the garden of Eden in 
the second chapter of Genesis — sing a hymn with them, 
the imagery of which is taken from the fruits and bios- 



PUBLIC INSTRUCTION. 37 

soms of a garden, and explain to them how kind and 
bountiful God is, who gives us such wholesome plants and 
fruits, and such beautiful flowers for our nourishment and 
gratification. 

The external heavens also make an interesting lesson. 
The sky — its appearance and color at different times ; 
the clouds — their color, their varying form and movements; 
the sun — its rising and setting, its concealment by clouds, 
its warming the earth and giving it life and fertility, its great 
heat in summer, and the danger of being exposed to it un- 
protected ; the moon — its appearance by night, full, gib- 
bous, horned; its occasional absence from the heavens ; the 
stars — their shining, difterence among them, their number, 
distance from us, &c. In this connexion the teacher may 
read to them the eighteenth and nineteenth Psalms, and 
other passages of Scripture of that kind, sing with them 
a hymn celebrating the glory of God in the creation, and 
enforce the moral bearing of such contemplations by ap- 
propriate remarks. A very common lesson is, the family 
and family duties — love to parents, love to brothers and 
sisters — concluding with appropriate passages from Scrip- 
ture, and singing a family hymn. 

2. Elements of reading. 

After a suitable time spent in the exercises above de- 
scribed, the children proceed to learn the elements of 
reading. The first step is to exercise the organs of sound 
till they have perfect command of their vocal powers ; and 
this, after the previous discipline in conversation and sing- 
ing, is a task soon accomplished. They are then taught 
to utter distinctly all the vowel-sounds. The characters 
or letters representing these sounds are then shown and 
described to them, till the form and power of each are 
distinctly impressed upon their memories. The same 
process is then gone through in respect to diphthongs and 
consonants. Last of all, after having acquired a definite 
and distinct view of the different sounds, and of the forms 
of the letters which respectively represent these sounds, 
they are taught the names of these letters, with the dis- 
tinct understanding that the name of a letter and the power 
of a letter are two very different things. 
4 



38 ELEMENTARY 

They are now prepared to commence reading. The 
letters are printed in large form, on square cards ; the 
class stands up before a sort of rack ; the teacher holds 
the cards in his hand, places one upon the rack, and a 
conversation of this kind passes between him and his pu- 
pils : What letter is that ? H. He places another on the 
rack. What letter is that ? A. I now put these two let- 
ters together, thus, (moving the cards close together,) 
HA. What sound do these two letters signify ? Ha. 
There is another letter. What letter is that ? (putting it 
on the rack.) R. I now put this third letter to the other 
two, thus, HAR. What sound do the three letters make ? 
Har. There is another letter. What is it? D. I join 
this letter to the other three, thus, HARD. What do 
they all make ? Hard. Then he proceeds in the same 
way with the letters F-I-S-T ; joins these four letters to 
the preceding four, HARD-FIST, and the pupils pro- 
nounce, Hard-fist. Then with the letters E and D, and 
joins these two to the preceding eight, and the pupils 
pronounce Hard-fisted. In this way they are taught to 
read words of any length — (for you may easily add to 
the above, N-E-S-S, and make Hard-fistedness) — the 
longest as easily as the shortest ; and in fact they learn 
their letters ; they learn to read words of one syllable 
and of several syllables, and to read in plain reading, by 
the same process, at the same moment. After having 
completed a sentence, or several sentences, with the cards 
and rack, they then proceed to read the same words and 
sentences in their spelling-books. 

3. Elements of writing. 

The pupils are first taught the right position of the arms 
and body in writing, the proper method of holding the 
pen, &c. ; and are exercised on these points till their hab- 
its are formed correctly. The different marks used in 
writing are then exhibited to them, from the simple point 
or straight line, to the most complex figure. The varia- 
tions of form and position which they are capable of as- 
suming, and the different parts of which the complex 
figures are composed, are carefully described, and the* 
student is taught to imitate them, beginning with the most 



PUBLIC INSTRUCTION. 39 

simple ; then the separate parts of the complex, then 
the joining of the several parts to a whole, with his pen- 
cil and slate. After having acquired facihty in this 
exercise, he is prepared to write with his ink and paper. 
The copy is written upon the black-board ; the paper is 
laid before each member of the class, and each has his 
pen ready in his hand, awaiting the word of his teacher. If 
the copy be the simple point, or line / , the teacher repeats 
the syllable owe, one, slowly at first, and with gradually- 
increasing speed, and at each repetition of the sound the 
pupils write. In this way they learn to make the mark 
both correctly and rapidly. If the figure to be copied 
consist of two strokes, (thus, 7,) the teacher pronounces 
one, two — one, two, slowly at first, and then rapidly, as 
before ; and the pupils make the first mark, and then the 
second, at the sound of each syllable, as before. If the 
figure consist of three strokes, (thus, i,) the teacher pro- 
nounces one, two, three, and the pupils write as before. 
So when they come to make letters — -the letter a has five 
strokes, thus, a. When that is the copy, the teacher 
says, deliberately, one, two, three, four, jive, and at the 
sound of each syllable the different strokes composing the 
letter are made ; the speed of utterance is gradually ac- 
celerated, till finally the a is made very quickly, and at 
the same time neatly. By this method of teaching, a 
plain, neat, and quick hand is easily acquired. 

4. Elements of number, or arithmetic. 

In this branch of instruction I saw no improvements in 
the mode of teaching not already substantially introduced 
into the best schools of our own country. I need not, 
therefore, enter into any details respecting them, except- 
ing so far as to say that the student is taught to demon- 
strate, and perfectly to understand, the reason and nature 
of every rule before he uses it. 

(See Arithmetics, by Colburn, Ray, Miss Beecher, 
and others.) 

II. Second part — children from eight to ten years of age. 

1. Exercises in reading. 



40 ELEMENTARY 

The object of these exercises, in this part of the course, 
is to acquire the habit of reading with accuracy and readi- 
ness, with due regard to punctuation, and with reference 
to orthography. Sometimes the whole class read togeth- 
er, and sometimes an individual by himself, in order to 
accustom them to both modes of reading, and to secure 
the advantages of both. The sentence is first gone 
through with in the class, by distinctly spelling each word 
as it occurs ; then by pronouncing each word distinctly 
without spelling it ; a third time by pronouncing the words 
and mentioning the punctuation-points as they occur. A 
fourth time, the sentence is read with the proper pauses 
indicated by the punctuation-points, without mentioning 
them. Finally, the same sentence is read with particular 
attention to the intonations of the voice. Thus one thing 
is taken at a time, and pupils must become thorough in 
each as it occurs, before they proceed to the next. One 
great benefit of the class reading together is, that each 
individual has the same amount of exercise as if he were 
the only one under instruction, his attention can never 
falter, and no part of the lesson escapes him. A skilful 
teacher, once accustomed to this mode of reading, can as 
easily detect any fault, mispronunciation, or negligence, 
in any individual, as if that individual were reading alone. 

The process is sometimes shortened, and the sentence 
read only three times, namely — " according to the words, 
according to the punctuation, according to the life." 

2. Exercises in writing. 

The pupils proceed to write copies in joining-hand, 
both large and small, the principles of teaching being 
essentially as described in the first part of the course. 
The great object here is, to obtain a neat, swift, business 
hand. Sometimes, without a copy, they wTite from the 
dictation of the teacher ; and in most cases instruction 
in orthography and punctuation is combined with that in 
penmanship. They are also taught to make and mend 
their own pens, and in doing this to be economical of 
their quills. 

3. Religious and moral instruction in select Bible nar- 
ratives. 



PUBLIC INSTRUCTION. 41 

In this branch of teaching the methods are various, and 
the teacher adopts the method best adapted, in his judge- 
ment, to the particular circumstances of his own school, 
or to the special objects which he may have in view with 
a particular class. Sometimes he calls the class around 
him, and relates to them, in his own language, some of 
the simple narratives of the Bible, or reads it to them in the 
words of the Bible itself, or directs one of the children to 
read it aloud ; and then follows a friendly, famiHar conver- 
sation between him and the class respecting the narrative ; 
their little doubts are proposed and resolved, their questions 
put and answered, and the teacher unfolds the moral and 
religious instruction to be derived from the lesson, and 
illustrates it by appropriate quotations from the didactic and 
preceptive parts of the Scripture. Sometimes he explains 
to the class a particular virtue or vice — a truth or a duty ; 
and after having clearly shown what it is, he takes some 
Bible narrative which strongly illustrates the point in dis- 
cussion, reads it to them, and directs their attention to it, 
with special reference to the preceding narrative. 

A specimen or two of these different methods will best 
show what they are : 

(a) Read the narrative of the birth of Christ, as given 
by Luke, ii. 1-20. Observe, Christ was born for the 
salvation of men, so also for the salvation of children. 
Christ is the children's friend. Heaven rejoices in the 
good of men. Jesus, though so great and glorious, 
makes his appearance in a most humble condition- He 
is the teacher of the poor, as well as of the rich. 

With these remarks compare other texts of the Bible. 

Jno. iii. 16. " For God so loved the \v:orld that he gave his only 
begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but 
have everlasting life." 

1 Jno. iv. 9. " In this was manifested the love of God towards 
us ; because that God sent his oply begotten Son into the world, that 
we might live through him." 

Mark x. 14, 15. " But when Jesus saw it he was much displeased, 
and said unto them, Suffer little children to come unto me, for of such 
is the kingdom of God. Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not 
receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter there- 
in." 

4* 



42 ELEMENTARY 

And the lesson is concluded with singing a Christmas 
hymn. 

Jesus feeds five thousand men : Jno. vi. 1-14. 

God can bless a little so that it will do great good. 

Economy suffers nothing to be lost — other texts : Ps. 
cxlv. 15, 16. 

*' The eyes of all wait upon thee ; and thou givest them their meat 
in due season." 

*' Thou openest thy hand, and satisfiest the desire of every living 
thing." 

Matt. vi. 31-33. " Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall 
we eat ? or. What shall we drink ? or. Wherewithal shall we be 
clothed? (for after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your 
heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. 
But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness ; and all 
these things shall be added unto you." 

Story of Cain and Abel. Gen. iv. 1—16. 

Remarks. — Two men may do the same thing exter- 
nally, and yet the merit of their acts be very different. 
God looks at the heart. Be careful not to cherish envy 
or ill-will in the heart. You know not to what crimes 
they may lead you. Remorse and misery of the fratri- 
cide — other texts. Matt. xv. 19. Heb. xi. 4. 1 Jno. 
iii. 12, Job xxxiv. 32. 

" For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, 
fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies." 

" By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than 
Cain, by which he obtained witness, that he was righteous, God testi- 
fying of his gifts : and by it he, being dead, yet speaketh." 

" Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. 
And wherefore slew he him ? Because his own works were evil, and 
his brother's righteous." 

Story of Jesus in the temple. Luke ii. 41-52. 

Jesus in his childhood was very fond of learning — (he 
heard and asked questions.) God's word w^as his delight, 
he understood what he heard and read — (men were as- 
tonished at his understanding and answers.) He care- 
fully obeyed his parents — (he went with them and was 
subject to them.) And as he grew up his good conduct 
endeared him to God and man. Other texts. Eph. vi. 
1-4. Prov. iii. 1-4. 



PUBLIC INSTRUCTION. 43 

** Children ! obey your parents in the Lord ; for this is right. Hon- 
or thy father and mother, (which is the first commandment with 
promise,) that it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long 
on the earth. And, ye fathers ! provoke not your children to wrath, 
but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord." 

"My son, forget not my law ; but let thine heart keep my com- 
mandments : For length of days, and long life, and peace, shall they 
add to thee. Let not mercy and truth forsake thee : bind them about 
thy neck ; write them upon the table of thine heart : So shalt thou 
find favor and good understanding in the sight of God and man." 

On the other mode of teaching, the teacher, for exam- 
ple, states the general truth, that God protects and re- 
wards the good, and punishes the bad. In illustration of 
this he reads to them the narrative of Daniel in the lions' 
den, and the death which overtook his wicked accusers. 
Dan. vi. In illustration of the same truth, the escape 
of Peter, and the miserable death of his persecutor, Her- 
od, may be read. Acts xii. 

The teacher may impress upon the mind of his class, 
that diligence, scrupulous fidelity, and conscientious self- 
control, are the surest guarantees of success in hfe ; and, 
in illustration of the statement, read the narrative of Jo- 
seph's conduct in his master's house in Egypt, and in the 
prison, and the results of it. Gen. xxxix. So, also, 
various incidents in the life of Jesus may be used to great 
advantage in illustrating different virtues. 

It is recommended that the teacher employ, in his in- 
structions, the translation of the Scriptures in general use 
among the people ; but that he occasionally take the 
original Scriptures and read to the children, in his own 
translation, and sometimes use simple translations from 
different authors, that children may early learn to notice 
the diversities in different faithful translations, and see 
what they really amount to. 

It is scarcely necessary to observe, that a teacher who 
understands his business, and is faithful to his trust, will 
scrupulously abstain from sectarian pecuharities, or from 
casting odium on the tenets of any of the Christian denom- 
inations. A man who has not magnanimity or enlargement 
of mind enough for this, is not fit to be employed as a 
teacher, even in the humblest branches of knowledge. 



44 ELEMENTARY 

4. Language, or grammar. 

The knowledge of the native tongue, the ability to use 
it with correctness, facihty, and power, is justly regarded 
as one of the most important branches of common-school 
instruction. It is the principal object of the logical 
exercises, or, as they may be justly termed, the exercises 
in thinking and speaking, already described as the" first 
subject of study in the first part of the course, before the 
child has begun to use his book at all. 

In this second part of the course, grammar is taught 
directly and scientifically, yet by no means in a dry and 
technical manner. On the contrary, technical terms are 
carefully avoided, till the child has become familiar w^ith 
the nature and use of the things designated by them, and 
he is able to use them as the names of ideas which have 
a definite existence in his mind, and not as awful sounds, 
dimly shadowing forth some mysteries of science into 
which he has no power to penetrate. 

The first object is to illustrate the different parts of 
speech, such as the noun, the verb, the adjective, the 
adverb ; and this is done by engaging the pupil in conver- 
sation, and leading him to form sentences in which the 
particular part of speech to be learned shall be the most 
important word, and directing his attention to the nature . 
and use of the word in the place where he uses it. For 
example, let us suppose the nature and use of the adverb 
are to be taught. The teacher writes upon the black- 
board the words " here, there, near," &c. He then says, 
" Children, we are all together in this room — by which 
of the words on the black-board can you express this .'"' 
Children — '' We are all here.'''' Teacher — " Now look 
out of the window and see the church ; what can you 
say of the church with the second word on the black- 
board ?" Children — " The church is there.'''' Teach- 
er — " The distance between us and the church is not 
great ; how will you express this by a word on the black- 
board ?" Children — " The church is near." The fact 
that these different words express the same sort of rela- 
tions is then explained, and, accordingly, that they belong 
to the same class, or are the same part of speech. The 



PUBLIC INSTRUCTION. 45 

variations of these words are next explained. '' Children, 
you say the church is near, but there is a shop between 
us and the church ; what will you say of the shop ?" 
Children — " The shop is nearer,''^ Teacher — " But 
there is a fence between us and the shop. Now when 
you think of the distance between us, the shop, and the 
fence, what will you say of the fence ?" Children — 
" The fence is nearest.'''' So of other adverbs. " The 
lark sings well. Compare the singing of the lark with 
that of the canary-bird. Compare the singing of the 
nightingale with that of the canary-bird." After all the 
different sorts of adverbs and their variations have in this 
way been illustrated, and the pupils understand that all 
words of this kind are called adverbs., the definition of 
the adverb is given as it stands in the grammar, and the 
book is put into their hands to study the chapter on this 
topic. In this way the pupil understands what he is do- 
ing at every step of his progress, and his memory is never 
burdened with mere names, to which he can" attach no 
definite meaning. 

The mode of teaching the subsequent branches is 
founded on the same general principles, and it may not 
be necessary to give particular examples. 

5. Numbers, or arithmetic. 

6. Doctrine of space and form, or geometry. 

7. Singing by note, or elements of music. 

The method of teaching music has already been suc- 
cessfully introduced into our own State, and whoever 
visits the schools of Messrs. Mason or Solomon, in Cin- 
cinnati, will have a much better idea of what it is than 
any description can give ; nor will any one who visits 
these schools entertain a doubt that all children from six 
to ten years of age, who are capable of learning to read, 
are capable of learning to sing, and that this branch of 
instruction can be introduced into all our common schools 
with the greatest advantage, not only to the comfort and 
discipline of the pupils, but also to their progress in their 
other studies. 

The students are taught from the black-board. The 
different sounds are represented by lines of different 



46 ELExMENTARY 

lengths, by letters, by figures, and by musical notes ; and 
the pupils are thoroughly drilled on each successive prin- 
ciple before proceeding to the next. 

III. Third part, of tivo years — children from ten to 
twelve, 

1. Exercises in reading and elocution. 

The object of these exercises, in this part of the course, 
is to accustom the pupils to read in a natural and impres- 
sive manner, so as to bring the full force of the sentiment 
on those to whom they read. They are examined in 
modulation, emphasis, and the various intonations, and 
they often read sentences from the black-board in which 
tlie various modulations are expressed by musical notes 
or curved hues. 

The evils of drawling and monotone are prevented in 
the outset by the method of teaching, particularly the 
practice of the whole class reading together and keeping 
time. Short and pithy sentences, particularly the Book 
of Proverbs, are recommended as admirably adapted to 
exercises of this kind. 

2. Ornamental writing, introductory to drawing. 

The various kinds of ornamental letters are here prac- 
tised upon, giving accuracy to the eye and steadiness to 
the hand, preparatory to skill in drawing, which comes 
into the next part of the course. The pupils also prac- 
tise writing sentences and letters, with neatness, rapidity, 
and correctness. 

3. Religious instruction in the connected Bible history. 
The design here is to give to the student a full and 

connected view of the whole Bible history. For this 
purpose large tables are made out and hung before the 
students. These tables are generally arranged in four 
columns, the first containing the names of the distin- 
guished men during a particular period of Bible history ; 
the second, the dates ; the third, a chronological register of 
events ; and the fourth, the particular passages of the Bible 
where the history of these persons and events maybe found. 
With these tables before the pupils, the teacher himself, 



PUBLIC INSTRUCTION. 47 

in his own words, gives a brief conversational outline 
of the principal characters and events within a certain 
period, and then gives directions that the scriptural pas- 
sages referred to be carefully read. After this is done, 
the usual recitation and examination take place. Some 
of the more striking narratives, such as the finding of 
Moses on the banks of the Nile ; Abraham offering his 
son ; the journey of the wise men to do homage to 
Christ; the crucifixion; the conversion of Paul, &c., 
are committed to memory in the words of the Bible, and 
the recitation accompanied with the singing of a hymn 
alluding to these events. The moral instruction to be de- 
rived from each historical event is carefully impressed by 
the teacher. The teacher also gives them a brief view of 
the history between the termination of the Old and the 
commencement of the New Testament, that nothing' may 
be wanting to a complete and systematic view of the 
whole ground. Thus the whole of the historical part of 
the Bible is studied thoroughly, and systematically, and 
practically, without the least sectarian bias, and without 
a moment being spent on a single idea that will not be of 
the highest use to the scholar during all his future life. 

4. Language and grammar. 

There is here a continuation of the exercises in the 
preceding parts of the course, in a more scientific form, 
together with parsing of connected sentences, and writing 
from the dictation of the teacher, with reference to gram- 
mar, orthography, and punctuation. The same principle 
alluded to before, of avoiding technical terms till the 
things represented by those terms are clearly perceived, 
is here carefully adhered to. A single specimen of the 
manner in which the modes and tenses of the verb are 
taught, may be sufficient to illustrate my meaning. The 
teacher writes on the black-board a simple sentence, as, 
" The scholars learn well ;" and asks the class what sort 
of a sentence it is. They reply that it is a direct state- 
ment of a fact. (Teach.) Put it in the form of a com- 
mand. (Class.) Scholars, learn well ! (Teach.) Put 
it in a question form. (Class.) Do the scholars learn 
well.? (Teach.) Of a wish. (Class.) May the scholars 



48 ELEMENTARY 

learn well ! (Teach.) Of an exclamation. (Class.) 
How well the scholars learn ! (Teach.) The condi- 
tional form. (Class.) If the scholars learn well ; or. 
Should the scholars learn well. (Teach.) Of necessity. 
(Class.) The scholars must learn well. (Teach.) Of 
ability. (Class.) The scholars can learn well, &c. &c. 
They are then taught that the direct statement is called 
the indicative mode of the verb ; the command, the im- 
perative mode ; the conditional, the subjunctive mode ; 
the wish, the potential mode, &c. &c. — and after this 
the book is put into their hands, and they study their les- 
son as it stands. After this the different tenses of the 
several modes are taught in the same way. 

5. Real instruction, or knowledge of Nature and the 
external world, including the first elements of the natural 
sciences, the arts of life, geography, and history. In- 
struction on this head is directed to the answering of the 
following questions, namely : 

(a) What is man, as it respects his corporeal and in- 
tellectual nature ? 

Here come anatomy and physiology, so far as the 
structure of the human body is concerned, and the func- 
tions of its several parts. 

Also the simple elements of mental philosophy. In 
this connexion appropriate texts of Scripture are quoted, 
as Gen. ii. 7. Ps. cxxxix. 14—16. An appropriate 
hymn is also sung. 

" And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breath- 
ed into his nostrils the breath of life ; and man became a living soul." 

" I will praise thee ; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made : mar- 
vellous are thy works ; and that my soul knoweth right well. My sub- 
stance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curious- 
ly wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Thine eyes did see my 
substance, yet being imperfect ; and in thy book all my members were 
written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was 
none of them." 

(6) What does man need for the preservation and cheer- 
ful enjoyment of life, as it respects his body and mind ? 
For his body he needs food ; the different kinds of food, 
and the mode of preparing them, are here brought to view ; 
the unwholesomeness of some kinds of food ; injurious- 



PUBLIC INSTRUCTION. 49 

ness of improper food ; cooking ; evils of gluttony. The 
different kinds of clothing and modes of preparing them ; 
what sort of dress is necessary to health ; folly and wick- 
edness of vanity and extravagance. Dwellings — materi- 
als of which houses are constructed ; mode of constructing 
them; different trades employed in their construction. 

For the mind, man needs society — the family and its 
duties ; the neighborhood and its duties Intellectual, 
moral, and rehgious cultivation ; the school and its duties ; 
the church and its duties. For the body and mind both, 
he needs security of person and property — the govern- 
ment ; the legislature ; the courts, &c. 

(c) Where and how do men find the means to supply 
their wants, and make themselves comfortable and happy 
in this life ? 

The vegetable, the mineral, and the animal kingdoms 
are here brought to view, for materials ; together with 
agriculture and manufactures, as the means of converting 
these materials to our use. Geography, with special ref- 
erence to the productions of countries, and their civil, 
literary, and religious institutions ; towns, their organiza- 
tion and employments. Geography is sometimes taught 
by blank charts, to which the students are required to affix 
the names of the several countries, rivers, mountains, prin- 
cipal towns, &c., and then state the productions and insti- 
tutions for which they are remarkable. Sometimes the 
names of countries, rivers, &c., are given, and the pupil 
is required to construct an outline chart of their localities. 

In respect to all the above points, the native country 
is particularly studied ; its capabilities, its productions, its 
laws, its institutions, its history, &c., are investigated, 
with especial reference to its ability of supplying the phys- 
ical, social, and moral wants of its inhabitants. Under 
this head the pupils are taught to appreciate their native 
country, to venerate and love its institutions, to understand 
what is necessary to their perfection, and to imbibe a spirit 
of pure and generous patriotism. It is scarcely necessa- 
ry to add, that all the instruction under this fifth head is 
confined to the fundamental and simplest principles of the 
several branches referred to. 
5 



50 ELEMENTARY 

6. Arithmetic, continued through fractions and the 
rules of proportion. 

7. Geometry — doctrine of magnitudes and measures. 

8. Singing, and science of vocal and instrumental music. 

IV. Fourth part, of two years — children from twelve to 
fourteen, 

1. Religious instruction, in the religious observation 
of Nature, the life and discourses of Jesus Christ, the his- 
tory of the Christian religion, in connexion with the con- 
temporary civil history, and the principal doctrines of the 
Christian system. 

The first topic of instruction mentioned under this head 
is one of peculiar interest and utility. The pupils are 
taught to observe, with care and system, the various 
powers and operations of Nature, and to consider them as 
so many illustrations of the wisdom, power, and goodness 
of the Creator ; and at each lesson they are directed to 
some appropriate passage of the Bible, which they read 
and commit to memory : and thus the idea is continually 
impressed on them, that the God of Nature and the God 
of the Bible are one and the same Being. 

For example, as introductory to the whole study, the 
first chapter of Genesis, together with some other appro- 
priate passage of Scripture, as the 147th Psalm, or the 
38th chapter of Job, may be read and committed to mem- 
ory. The surface of the earth, as illustrating the power 
and wisdom of God, may be taken as a lesson. Then 
the varieties of surface, as mountains, valleys, oceans and 
rivers, continents and islands, the height of mountains, 
the breadth of oceans, the length of rivers, remarkable cat- 
aracts, extended caverns, volcanoes, tides, &c., may be 
taken into view, and the teacher may impress upon the class 
the greatness, power, and intelligence necessary for such 
a creation. The whole is fortified by the application of 
such a passage as Psalm civ. 1-13. 

"Bless the Lord, O my soul ! O Lord my God ! thou art very great ; 
thou art clothed with honor and majesty. Who coverest thyself with 
light as with a garment : who stretchest out the heavens like a curtain : 



i 



PUBLIC INSTRUCTION. 51 

who layeth the beams of his chambers in the waters : who maketh the 
clouds his chariot : who walketh upon the wings of the wind : who 
maketh his angels spirits ; his ministers a flaming fire. Who laid the 
foundations of the earth, that it should not be removed for ever. Thou 
coveredst it with the deep as with a garment : the waters stood above the 
mountains. At thy rebuke they fled ; at the voice of thy thunder they 
hasted away. They go up by the mountains ; they go down by the val- 
leys unto the place which thou hast founded for them. Thou hast set 
a bound that they may not pass over ; that they turn not again to cover 
the earth. He sendeth the springs into the valleys, which run among the 
hills. They give drink to every beast of the field ; the wild asses 
quench their thirst. By them shall the fowls of the heaven have their 
habitation, which sing among the branches. He watereth the hills 
from his chambers : the earth is satisfied with the fruit of thy works." 
"O Lord, how manifold are thy works ! in wisdom hast thou made 
them all : the earth is full of thy riches. So is this great and wide sea, 
wherein are things creeping innumerable, both small and great beasts. 
There go the ships : there is that leviathan, whom thou hast made to 
play therein." 

The fruitfulness and beauty of the earth, as illustrating 
the wisdom and goodness of God, may serve as another 
lesson. Here may be exhibited the beauty and variety of 
the plants and flowers with which the earth is adorned — 
the manner of their growth and self-propagation, their 
utility to man and beast, their immense number and varie- 
ty, their relations to each other as genera and species j 
trees and their varieties, their beauty and utility, their tim- 
ber and their fruit ; and, in connexion with this lesson, 
Psalm civ. 14-34 may be committed to memory. 

" He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle, and herb for the service 
of man : that he may bring forth food out of the earth ; and wine that 
maketh glad the heart of man, and oil to make his face to shine, and 
bread which strengtheneth man's heart. The trees of the Lord are full 
of sap ; the cedars of Lebanon, which he hath planted ; where the 
birds make their nests : as for the stork, the fir-trees are her house. The 
high hills are a refuge for the wild goats ; and the rocks for the conies. He 
appointeth the moon for seasons : the sun knoweth his going down. Thou 
raakest darkness, and it is night : wherein all the beasts of the forest do 
creep forth. The young lions roar after their prey, and seek their meat 
from God. The sun ariseth, they gather themselves together, and lay 
them down in their dens. Man go eth forth unto his work and to his 
labor until the evening." 

" These wait all upon thee ; that thou mayest give them their meat in 
due season. That thou givest them they gather ; thou openest thine 
hand, they are filled with good. Thou hidest thy face, they are troub- 
led : thou takest away their breath, they die, and return to then- dust. 



52 ELEMENTARY 

Thou sendest forth thy Spirit, they are created : and thou renewest the 
face of the earth. The glory of the Lord shall endure for ever : the 
Lord shall rejoice in his works. He looketh on the earth, and it trem- 
bleth : he toucheth the hills, and they smoke. I will sing unto the 
Lord as long as I live : I will sing praise to my God while I have 
my being. My meditation of him shall be sweet : I will be glad in the 
Lord." 

In like manner, the creation and nourishment, the hab- 
its and instincts of various animals may be contemplated, 
in connexion with Proverbs vi. 6—8 ; Psalm civ. 17— 
22 ; Proverbs xxx. 24-31. Gen. i. 20-24; Psalm cxlv. 
15, 16. 

" Go to the ant, thou sluggard ! consider her ways, and be wise : 
Which having no guide, overseer, or ruler, provideth her meat in the 
summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest." 

*' There be four things which are little on the earth, but they are ex- 
ceeding wise : the ants are a people not strong, yet they prepare their 
meat in the summer ; the conies are but a feeble folk, yet make they 
their houses in the rocks ; the locusts have no king, yet go they forth 
all of them by bands ; the spider taketh hold with her hands, and is 
in kings' palaces. There be three things which go well, yea, four are 
comely in going : a lion, which is strongest among beasts, and turneth 
not away for any ; a greyhound ; a he-goat also ; and a king, against 
whom there is no rising up." 

" And God said. Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his 
kuid, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind : 
and it was so. And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, 
and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth 
after his kind : and God saw that it was good." 

" The eyes of all wait upon thee ; and thou givest them their meat ia 
due season. Thou openest thine hand, and satisfiest the desire of every 
living thing. The Lord is righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his 
works." 

The phenomena of light and color, the nature of the 
rainbow, &c., may make another interesting lesson, illus- 
trating the unknown forms of beauty and glory which exist 
in the Divine Mind, and which He may yet develope in 
other and still more glorious worlds ; in connexion with 
Gen. i. 3, 5, 9, 13, 14, and other passages of like kind. 

So the properties of the air, wind, and storm, Job 
xxviii. 25 ; xxxviii. 33, 34, 35. Psalm cxlviii. 8. 

"Knowest thou the ordinances of heaven ? canst thou set the dominion 
thereof in the earth ? Canst thou lift up thy voice to the clouds, that 



PUBLIC INSTRUCTION. 53 

abundance of waters may cover thee ? Canst thou send lightnings, that 
they may go, and say unto thee, Here we are ? Who hath put wisdom 
in the inward parts ? or who hath given understanding to the heart ? 
Who can number the clouds in wisdom ? or who can stay the bottles of 
heaven ? ' ' 

Then the heavens, the sun, moon, planets, fixed stars, 
and comets, the whole science of astronomy, so far as it 
can be introduced with advantage into common schools, 
can be contemplated in the same way. The enlighten- 
ing, elevating, and purifying moral influence of such a 
scheme of instruction, carried through the whole system 
of Nature, must be clearly obvious to every thinking 
mind : and its. utility, considered merely with reference to 
worldly good, is no less manifest. 

The second topic of religious instruction is more ex- 
clusively scriptural. The life of Christ, and the history 
of the apostles, as given in the New Testament, are 
chronologically arranged, and tables formed as before. 
(III. 3.) The discourses of Christ are examined and 
explained in their chronological arrangement, and in the 
same way the discourses and epistles of the apostles. 
The history of Christianity, in connexion with the contem- 
porary civil history, is taught in a series of conversational 
lectures. To conclude the whole course of religious in- 
struction, a summary of the Christian doctrine is given in 
the form of some approved catechism. 

2. Knowledge of the world and of mankind, including 
civil society, constitutional law, agriculture, mechanic 
arts, manufactures, &c. 

This is a continuation and completion, in a more sys- 
tematic form, of the instruction commenced in III. 5. 
The course begins with the family, and the first object is 
to construct a habitation. The pupil tells what materials 
are necessary for this purpose, where they are to be found, 
how brought together and fitted into the several parts of 
the building. The house must now be furnished. The 
different articles of furniture and their uses are named in 
systematic order, the materials of which they are made, 
and the various trades employed in making them are enu- 
merated. Then comes the garden, its tools and products, 
5* 



54 ELEMENTARY 

and whatever else is necessary for the subsistence and 
physical comfort of a family. Then the family duties and 
virtues ; parental and filial obligation and affection ; rights 
of property ; duties of neighborhoods ; the civil relations 
of society ; the religious relations of society ; the State, 
the father-land, &c. ; finally, geography, history, and 
travels. Books of travels are compiled expressly for the 
use of schools, and are found to be of the highest interest 
and utility. 

3. Language, and exercises in composition. 

The object here is to give the pupils a perfect com- 
mand of their native tongue, and ability to use it on all 
occasions with readiness and power. The first exercises 
are on simple questions, such as — " Why ought children 
to love and obey their parents .'"' — or they are short de- 
scriptions of visible objects, such as a house, a room, a 
garden, &c. There are also exercises on the various 
forms of expressing the same idea, as, ' ' The sun enlight- 
ens the earth." " The earth is enlightened by the sun." 
''The sun gives light to the earth." "The earth re- 
ceives light from the sun." " The sun is the source of 
hght to the earth." " The sun sends out its rays to en- 
lighten the earth." " The earth is enhghtened by rays 
sent out from the sun," &c. There are exercises also 
of the same sort on metaphors and other figures of speech. 
Familiar letters are then written, and short essays on 
themes such as may be furnished by texts from the Book 
of Proverbs, and other sentences of the kind ; and thus 
gradual advancement is made to all the higher and graver 
modes of composition. 

4. Application of arithmetic and the mathematics to 
the business of life, including surveying, civil engineer- 
ing, &c. 

The utility of this branch of instruction, and the mode 
of it, after what has already been said, are probably too 
obvious to need any further illustration. 

5. Elements of drawing. 

For this the pupils have already been prepared by the 
exercises in ornamental writing, in the previous part of 
the course. They have already acquired that accuracy 



PUBLIC INSTRUCTION. 55 

of sight and steadiness of hand which are among the most 
essential requisites to drawing well. The first exercises 
are in drawing lines, and the most simple mathematical 
figures, such as the square, the cube, the triangle, the 
parallelogram ; generally from wooden models, placed at 
some little distance on a shelf, before the class. From 
this they proceed to architectural figures, such as doors, 
windows, columns, and facades. Then the figures of an- 
imals, such as a horse, a cow, an elephant — first from 
other pictures, and then from Nature. A plant, a rose, 
or some flower is placed upon a shelf, and the class make 
a jDicture of it. From this they proceed to landscape 
painting, historical painting, and the higher branches of 
the art, according to their time and capacity. All learn 
enough of drawing to use it in the common business of 
life, such as plotting a field, laying out a canal, or draw- 
ing the plan of a building ; and many attain to a high de- 
gree of excellence. 

6. Exercises in singing, and the science of music. 

The instructions of the previous parts are extended as 
far as possible, and include singing and playing at sight, 
and the more abstruse and difficult branches of the sci- 
ence and art of music. 

CHARACTER OF THE SYSTEM. 

The striking features of this system, even in the hasty 
and imperfect sketch which my limits allow me to give, 
are obvious even to superficial observation. No one can 
fail to observe its great completeness, both as to the num- 
ber and kind of subjects embraced in it, and as to its 
adaptedness to develope every power of every kind, and 
give it a useful direction. What topic, in all that is ne- 
cessary for a sound business education, is here omitted ? 
I can think of nothing, unless it be one or two of the 
modern languages, and these are introduced wherever it 
is necessary, as will be seen in the study-sheet of Dr. 
Diesterweg's seminary, inserted in the Appendix to 
this Report. I have not taken the course precisely as it 
exists in any one school, but have combined, from an 



56 ELEMENTARF 

investigation of many institutions, the features which I 
suppose would most fairly represent the whole system. 
In 'the Rhinish provinces of Prussia, in a considerable 
part of Bavaria, Baden, and Wirtemberg, French is 
taught as well as German ; in the schools of Prussian 
Poland, German and Polish are taught ; and even Eng- 
lish, in the Russian schools of Cronstadt and Archangel, 
where so many Enghsh and American merchants resort 
for the purposes of trade,. Two languages can be taught 
in a school quite as easily as one, provided the teacher be 
perfectly familiar with both, as any one may see by visit- 
ing Mr. Solomon's school in Cincinnati, where all the 
instruction is given both in German and English. 

What faculty of mind is there that is not developed in the 
scheme of instruction sketched above ? I know of none. 
The perceptive and reflective faculties, the memory and 
the judgement, the imagination and the taste, the moral and 
religious faculty, and even the various kinds of physical 
and manual dexterity, all have opportunity for develope- 
ment and exercise. Indeed, I think the system, in its 
great outhnes, as nearly complete as human ingenuity and 
skill can make it ; though undoubtedly some of its ar- 
rangements and details admit of improvement ; and some 
changes will of course be necessary in adapting it to the 
circumstances of different countries. 

The entirely practical character of the system is obvi- 
ous throughout. It views every subject on the practical 
side, and in reference to its adaptedness to use. The 
dry, technical, abstract parts of science are not those first 
presented ; but the system proceeds, in the only way 
which Nature ever pointed out, from practice to theory, 
from facts to demonstrations. It has often been a com- 
plaint in respect to some systems of education, that the 
more a man studied, the less he knew of the actual busi- 
ness of life. Such a complaint cannot be made in refer- 
ence to this system, for, being intended to educate for the 
actual business of life, this object is never for a moment 
lost sight of. 

Another striking feature of the system is its moral and 
religious character. Its morality is pure and elevated, 



PUBLIC INSTRUCTION. 57 

its religion entirely removed from the narrowness of sec- 
tarian bigotry. What parent is there, loving his children, 
and wishing to have them respected and happy, who 
would not desire that they should be educated under such 
a kind of moral and religious influence as has been de- 
scribed ? Wljiether a believer in revelation or not, does 
he not know that without sound morals there can be no 
happiness, and that there is no morality like the morality 
of the New Testament ? Does he not know that with- 
out religion the human heart can never be at rest, and that 
there is no religion like the religion of the Bible ? Every 
well-informed man knows, that, as a general fact, it is 
impossible to impress the obligations of morality with any 
efficiency on the heart of a child, or eveiTon that of an 
adult, without an appeal to some code which is sustained 
by the authority of God ; and for what code will it be 
possible to claim this authority, if not for the code of the 
Bible ? 

But perhaps some will be ready to say, The scheme is 
Indeed an excellent one, provided only it were practica- 
ble ; but the idea of introducing so extensive and com- 
plete a course of study into our common schools is en- 
tirely visionary, and can never be realized. I answer, 
that it is no theory which I have been exhibiting, but a 
matter of fact, a copy of actual practice. The above 
system is no visionary scheme, emanating from the closet 
of a recluse, but a sketch of the course of instruction 
now actually pursued by thousands of schoolmasters, in 
the best district schools that have ever been organized. 
It can be done ; for it has been done — it is now done ; — 
and it ought to be done. If it can be done in Europe, I 
believe it can be done in the United States : if it can be 
done in Prussia, I know it can be done in Ohio. The 
people have but to say the word and provide the means, 
and the thing is accomplished ; for the word of the 
people here is even more powerful than, the word of 
the King there ; and the means of the people here are 
altogether more abundant for such an object than the 
means of the sovereign there. Shall this object, then, 
so desirable in itself, so entirely practicable, so easily 



58 ELEMENTARY 

within our reach, fail of accomplishment ? For the hon- 
or and welfare of our State, for the safety of our whole 
nation, I trust it w411 not fail ; but that we shall soon wit- 
ness, in this commonweahh, the introduction of a system 
of common-school instruction, fully adequate to all the 
wants of our population. 

But the question occurs. How can this be done ? I will 
give a few brief hints as to some things which I suppose 
to be essential to the attainment of so desirable an end. 

MEANS OF SUSTAINING THE SYSTEM. 

1. Teachers must be skilful, and trained to their busi- 
ness. It will at once be perceived, that the plan above 
sketched out proceeds on the supposition that the teach- 
er has fully and distinctly in his mind the whole course 
of instruction, not only as it respects the matters to be 
taught, but also as to all the best modes of teaching, that 
he may be able readily and decidedly to vary his method 
according to the pecuharities of each individual mind 
which may come under his care. This is the only true 
secret of successful teaching^/' The old mechanical meth- 
od, in which the teacher relies entirely on his text-book, 
and drags every mind along through the same dull routine 
of creeping recitation, is utterly insufficient to meet the 
wants of our people. It may do in Asiatic Turkey, 
where the whole object of the school is to learn to pro- 
nounce the words of the Koran in one dull, monotonous 
series of sounds ; or it may do in China, where men must 
never speak or think out of the old beaten track of Chi- 
nese imbecility ; but it will never do in the United States, 
where the object of education ought to be to make im- 
mediately available, for the highest and best purposes,, 
every particle of real talent that exists in the nation^ To 
effect such a purpose, the teacher must possess a strong 
and independent mind, well discipHned, and well stored 
with every thing pertaining to his profession, and ready to 
adapt his instructions to every degree of intellectual ca- 
pacity, and every kind of acquired habit. But how can 
we expect to find such teachers, unless they are trained 



PUBLIC INSTRUCTION. 59 

to their business ? A very few of extraordinary powers 
may occur, as we sometimes find able mechanics, and 
great mathematicians, who had no early training in their 
favorite pursuits ; but these few exceptions to a general 
rule will never multiply fast enough to supply our schools 
with able teachers. The management of the human mind, 
particularly youthful mind, is the most delicate task ever 
committed to the hand of man ; and shall it be left to mere 
instinct, or shall our schoolmasters have at least as careful 
a training as our lawyers and physicians ? 

2. Teachers, then, must have the means of acquiring 
the necessary qualifications ; in other words, there must 
be institutions in which the business of teaching is made 
a systematic object of attention. I am not an advocate 
for multiplying our institutions. We already have more 
in number than we support, and it would be wise to give 
power and efiiciency to those we now possess before we 
project new ones. But the science and art of teaching 
ought to be a regular branch of study in some of our 
academies and high schools, that those who are looking 
forward to this profession may have an opportunity of 
studying its principles. In addition to this, in our popu- 
lous towns, where there is opportunity for it, there should 
be large model-schools, under the care of the most able 
and experienced teachers that can be obtained ; and the 
candidates for the profession, who have already completed 
the theoretic course of the academy, should be employed 
in this school as monitors or assistants, thus testing all 
their theories by practice, and acquiring skill and dexterity 
under the guidance of their head master. Thus, while 
learnings they would be teaching, and no time or effort 
would be lost. To give efficiency to the whole system, 
to present a general standard and a prominent point of 
union, there should be at least one model teachers' semi- 
nary, at some central point,— -as at Columbus, — which 
shall be amply provided with all the means of study and 
instruction, and have connected with it schools of every 
grade, for the practice of the students, under the imme- 
diate superintendence of their teachers. 

3. The teachers must be competently supported, and 



60 ELEMENTARY 

devoted to their business. Few men attain any great de- 
gree of excellence in a profession unless they love it, and 
place all their hopes in life upon it. A man cannot, con- 
sistently with his duty to himself, engage in a business 
which does not aftbrd him a competent support, unless 
he has other means of living, which is not the case with 
many who engage in teaching. In this country especially, 
where there are such vast fields of profitable employment 
open to every enterprising man, it is not possible that the 
best of teachers can be obtained, to any considerable ex- 
tent, for our district schools, at the present rate of wages. 
We have already seen wdiat encouragement is held out 
to teachers in Russia, Prussia, and other European na- 
tions, and what pledges are given of competent support to 
their famihes, not only while engaged in the work, but 
when, having been worn out in the public service, they 
are no longer able to labor. In those countries, where 
every profession and walk of life is crowded, and where 
one of the most common and oppressive evils is want of 
employment, men of high talents and qualifications are 
often glad to become teachers even of district schools ; 
men who in this country would aspire to the highest places 
in our colleges, or even our halls of legislation and courts 
of justice. How much more necessary, then, here, that 
the profession of teaching should afford a competent sup- 
port ! 

Indeed, such is the state of things in this country, that 
we cannot expect to find male teachers for all our schools. 
The business of educating, especially young children, 
must fall, to a great extent, on female teachers^- J There 
is not the same variety of tempting employment for fe- 
males as for men ; they can be supported cheaper, and 
the Creator has given them peculiar qualifications for the 
education of the young. Females, then, ought to be em- 
ployed extensively in all our elementary schools, and they 
should be encouraged and aided in obtaining the qualifica- 
tions necessary for this w^ork. There is no country in 
the world where woman holds so high a rank, or exerts 
so great an influence, as here ; wherefore, her responsi- 
bilities are the greater, and she is under obligations to 



PUBLIC INSTRUCTION. 61 

render herself the more actively useful. I think our fair 
countrywomen, notwithstanding the exhortations of Har- 
riet Martineau, Fanny Wright, and some other ladies and 
gentlemen, will never seek distinction in our pubhc assem- 
blies for political discussion, or in our halls of legislation : 
but in their appropriate work of educating the young, of 
forming the opening youthful mind to all that is good and 
great, the more they distinguish themselves the better. 

4. The children must be made comfortable in their 
school; they must be punctual, and attend the whole course. 
There can be no profitable study without personal com- 
fort ; and the inconvenience and miserable arrangements 
of some of our school-houses are enough to annihilate all 
that can be done by the best of teachers. No instructor 
can teach unless the pupils are present to be taught, and 
no plan of systematic instruction can be carried steadily 
through, unless the pupils attend punctually and through 
the whole' course. 

5. The children must be given up implicitly to the dis- 
cipline of the school. Nothing can be done unless the 
teacher has the entire control of his pupils in school-hours, 
and out of school too, so far as the rules of the school are 
concerned i ^ If the parent in any way interferes with, or 
overrules, the arrangements of the teacher, he may at- 
tribute it to himself if the school is not successful. No 
teacher ever ought to be employed to whom the entire 
management of the children cannot be safely intrusted ; 
and better at any time dismiss the teacher than counteract 
his discipline. Let parents but take the pains and spend 
the money necessary to provide a comfortable school-house 
and a competent teacher for their children, and they never 
need apprehend that the disciphne of the school will be 
unreasonably severe. JNo inconsiderable part of the cor- 
poral punishment that has been inflicted in schools, has 
been made necessary by the discomfort of school-houses 
and the unskilfulness of teachers. A lively, sensitive boy 
is stuck upon a bench full of knot-holes and sharp ridges, 
without a support for his feet or his back, with a scorch- 
ing fire on one side of him and a freezing wind on the 
other ; and a stiff Orbilius of a master, with wooden brains 

6 



62 ELEMENTARY 

and iron hands, orders him to sit perfectly still, with noth- 
ing to employ his mind or his body, till it is his turn to 
read. Thus confined for hours, what can the poor little 
fellow do but begin to wriggle like a fish out of water, or 
an eel in a frying-pan ? For this irrepressible effort at 
relief he receives a box on the ear ; this provokes and 
renders him still more uneasy, and next comes the merci- 
less ferula ; and the poor child is finally burnt and frozen, 
cuffed and beaten, into hardened roguery or incurable 
stupidity, just because the avarice of his parents denied 
him a comfortable school-house and a competent teacher. 
[On the subject of school discipline, I solicit attention 
particularly to the answers to question 3, in Appendix B, 
to this Report.] 

6. A beginning must be made at certain points, and 
the advance towards completeness must be gradual. 
Every thing cannot be done at once, and such a system 
as is needed cannot be generally introduced till its benefits 
are first demonstrated by actual experiment. Certain 
great points, then, where the people are ready to co-oper- 
ate, and to make the most liberal advances, in proportion 
to their means, to maintain the schools, should be selected, 
and no pains or expense spared, till the full benefits of the 
best system are realized ; and as the good effects are 
seen, other places will very readily follow the example. 
All experience has shown that governmental patronage is 
most profitably employed, not to do the entire work, but 
simply as an incitement to the people to help themselves. 

To follow up this great object, the Legislature has wise- 
ly made choice of a Superintendent, whose untiring labors 
and disinterested zeal are worthy of all praise. But no 
great plan can be carried through in a single year; and if 
the Superintendent is to have opportunity to do what is 
necessary, and to preserve that independence and energy 
of official character which are requisite to the successful 
discharge of his duties, he should hold his office for the 
same term, and on the same conditions, as the Judges of 
the Supreme Court. 

Every officer engaged in this, or in any other public 
work, should receive a suitable compensation for his ser- 



PUBLIC INSTRUCTION. 63 

vices. This, justice requires ; and it is the only way to 
secure fidehty and efficiency. 

There is one class of our population for whom sorne 
special provision seems necessary. The children of for- 
eign emigrants are now very numerous among us, and it 
is essential that they receive a good English education. 
But they are not prepared to avail themselves of the ad- 
vantages of our common English schools, their imperfect 
acquaintance with the language being an insuperable bar 
to their entering on the course of study. It is necessary, 
therefore, that there be some preparatory schools, in which 
instruction shall be communicated both in Enghsh and 
their native tongue. The English is, and must be, the 
language of this country, and the highest interests of our 
State demand it of the Legislature to require that the 
English language be thoroughly taught in every school 
which they patronise. Still, the exigencies of the case 
make it necessary that there should be some schools ex- 
pressly fitted to the condition of our foreign emigrants, 
to introduce them to a knowledge of our language and 
institutions. A school of this kind has been established 
in Cincinnati, by benevolent individuals. It has been In 
operation about a year, and already nearly three hundred 
children have received its advantages. Mr. Solomon, 
the head teacher, was educated for his profession in one 
of the best institutions of Prussia, and in this school he 
has demonstrated the excellences of the system. The 
instructions are all given both in German and English, 
and this use of two languages does not at allinterrupt the 
progress of the children in their respective studies. I 
cannot but recommend this philanthropic institution to the 
notice and patronage of the Legislature. 

In neighborhoods where there is a mixed population, 
it is desirable, if possible, to employ teachers who under- 
stand both languages, and that the exercises of the school 
be conducted in both, with the rule, however, that all the 
reviews and examinations he in English only. 

These suggestions I have made with unfeigned diffi- 
dence, and with a sincere desire that the work which has 
been so nobly begun by the Legislature of Ohio, may be 



64 ELEMENTARY PUBLIC INSTRUCTION. 

carried forward to a glorious result. I should hardly 
have ventured to take such liberty, had not my commis- 
sion expressly authorized me to ''make such practical 
observations as I might think proper," as well as to re- 
port facts. I know that I am addressing enhghtened and 
patriotic men, who have discernment to perceive, and 
good feehng to appreciate, every sincere attempt, how- 
ever humble it may be, for the country's good ; and I 
have therefore spoken out plainly and directly the honest 
convictions of my heart ; feeling assured that what is hon- 
estly meant will, by high-minded men, be kindly received. 
All which is respectfully submitted, 

C. E. Stowe. 
Columbus^ Dec. ISth, 1837. 



NOTE. 



I CANNOT close my report without acknowledging my 
special obligations to some gentlemen whose names do not 
occur in it. To Professor Dorner, of the University of 
Tuebingen, I am particularly indebted for his unwearied 
kindness and assiduity in directing me to the best schools, 
and introducing me to the teachers. To Dr. Bowring of 
London, and Professors Pryme and Henslow of tlie Uni- 
versity of Cambridge, 1 am under particular obligations. 
Dr. Drake of Cincinnati, and Hon. W. C. Rives and 
Hon. Henry Clay of the United States Senate, also ren- 
dered me timely aid. Hundreds of teachers, and other 
gentlemen interested in education, whose sympathies I 
enjoyed, I shall always remember with pleasure and grat- 
itude. 



APPENDIX 



(A.) 
PRUSSIAN SCHOOL-LAWS. 

In establishing a uniform school system in Prussia, great difficulty 
has been encountered from the local usages and privileges of different 
sections, of which the inhabitants have been extremely tenacious. 
Great care has been taken to avoid all needless offence, and to prevent 
local jealousies. Old usages and privileges, so far as possible, have 
been respected, and prejudices have not been rashly attacked, but left 
to be gradually undermined by the grovt'ing advantages of the system. 
This course has certainly been a wise one ; but one that has required 
great patience and perseverance on the part of the government, and a 
great amount of special legislation. In examining the Prussian laws 
pertaining to the schools for elementary instruction, and teachers' semi- 
naries alone, exclusive of the high schools, gymnasia, universities, &c,, 
I find that there are no less than two hundred and thirty-nine different 
edicts now in force, of which two hundred and twenty-six have been 
issued by Frederick William III. The earliest date is July 30th, 
1736, and the latest, July, 1834. 

The subjects and the number of the different edicts are as follows : 

I. General organization of the school system. Eleven edicts, from 
July, 1736, to August, 1S31. 

II. Duty of parents to send their children to the elementary schools. 
Nine edicts, from January, 1769, to January, 1831, namely : 

1. Seven on the general duties of parents ; and, 

2. Two having particular reference to the manufacturing districts. 

III. Instruction and education in the schools. Thirty-two edicts, 
from December, 1794, to September, 1832, namely : 

1. Seven on religious instruction. 

2. Seven on the general subjects of instruction, and their order. 

3. Four on instruction in agriculture and the arts. 

4. Two on vacations and dismissions from school. 

5. Twelve on the regulation of scholars out of school-hours. 

IV. Duty of districts to maintain schools and teachers. Nine edicts, 
from June, 1790, to December, 1830. 

V. The right of appointing teachers. Seven edicts, from September, 
1812, to January, 1831. 

6* 



66 



APPENDIX. 



VI. Teachers of the schools. Sixty-five edicts, from November, 
1738, to December, 1833, namely : 

1. Ten on the calling and examination of teachers. 

2. Eight on the personal rights and duties of teachers. 

3. Five on the salaries of teachers. 

4. Twelve on teachers engaging in other employments. 

5. Two on the dismissing and pensioning of teachers. 

6. Twelve on the deposing of teachers. 

7. Four on providing for the families of deceased teachers. 

VII. Duties of magistrates in respect to the schools. Twelve edicts, 
from December, 1810, to March, 1828. 

VIII. School property. Thirty-seven edicts, from January, 1801, 
to October, 1833, namely : 

1. Fourteen on school funds and their management. 

2. Twenty-one on school-houses. 

3. Two on settlement of accounts. 

IX. Regulations peculiar to schools in large cities. Four edicts, from 
June, 1811, to November, 1827. 

X. Institutions for special purposes. Thirty-four edicts, from Sep- 
tember, 1811, to January, 1834, namely : 

1. Four on schools for the deaf mutes. 

2. One on orphan-houses. 

3. Four on ecclesiastical instruction. 

4. Nine on private schools. 

5. One on infant schools. 

6. Two on girls' schools. 

7. Thirteen on schools for the Jews. 

XI. Education of teachers. Twenty edicts, from September, 1818, 
to August, 1833, namely : 

1. Seven on instruction in and out of the seminary. 
^ 2. Five on the personal rights and obligations of the students. 

3. Six on the military duties of the students. 

4. Two on associations of teachers. 

It is by a persevering, steady, determined series of efforts, carried 
through a long course of years, that the Prussian government has at- 
tained to a school system of such excellence and perfection. When 
Frederick William III. ascended the throne, in 1797, the Prussian sys- 
tem was no better than the Scotch system, or the New England system, 
if it were not indeed altogether inferior to these ; and it is only by forty 
years of hard work, forty years of intense labor, directed to this very 
point, that this noble system has been completed, which is now attract- 
ing the admiration and provoking the emulous zeal of the whole civil- 
ized world. Nor do the Prussians yet consider their system as perfect, 
but are still laboring as zealously for improvement as they were thirty 
years ago. Let not the government of Ohio, then, be discouraged, be- 
cause the very slight degree of attention which they have for a very short 
time given to this subject, has not set them at once on the pinnacle of 
perfection. I hope the Legislature will continue, at least for a half cen- 
tury to come, to make this one of their chief objects of attention. 



APPENDIX. 67 



(B.) 

QUERIES ON EDUCATION. 

The following inquiries, with some others not here included, were 
made out by a committee of the Association of Teachers in Hamilton 
county. I obtained the answers during my tour in Europe, from Mr. 
Wood of the Sessional School, in Edinburgh, Scotland, Rev. Mr. Kunze 
of the Frederick Orphan-House^ in Berlin, Prussia, and Professor 
Schwartz of the University of Heidelberg, in Baden. As I received 
the answers orally, and in different languages, I cannot pretend to give 
thern with verbal accuracy ; but I have endeavored in every instance to 
make a faithful representation of the sentiment. 

1. What is the best method of inculcating moral and religious duty 
in schools ? 

Mr. Wood. Every morning I have recitations in the Bible, accom- 
panied with such brief and pertinent remarks as naturally occur in 
connexion with the recitation. 

Mr. Kunze. In Prussia the scholars are all taught Luther's Smaller 
Catechism ; they have a daily recitation in the Bible, beginning with 
the historical portions ; the schools are always opened and closed with 
prayer, and the singing of some religious hymns. The Bible and Psalm- 
book are the first books which are put into the hands of the child, and 
they are his constant companions through the whole course of his edu- 
cation, and required to be such through life. 

Professor Schwartz. Every teacher should have a religious spirit, 
and, by his personal influence, diffuse it among his pupils. The reli- 
gious and moral instruction in the schools of Baden is similar to that in 
Prussia, as stated by Mr. Kunze. 

2. What is the best mode of using the Bible in schools ? 

Mr. W. Take the whole Bible, just as it is in our translation ; for 
the younger children, select the easier historical portions, and go through 
with it as the scholars advance. 

Mr. K. In Prussia we have tried all sorts of ways, by extracts, by 
new translations, by commentaries, written expressly for schools ; but, 
after all these trials, there is now but one opinion among all acquaint- 
ed with the subject ; and that is, that the whole Bible, just as it stands 
in the translations in common use, should be a reading and recitation 
book in all the schools. In the Protestant schools, Luther's translation 
is used ; and in the Catholic schools, the translations approved by that 
church. The children are required not merely to repeat the words of 
the translation by rote, but to give a good exhibition of the real senti- 
ment in their own language. 

Prof. S. Answer similar to Mr. Kunze's, above. 

8. Method of governing schools — moral influence — ^rewards of merit 
— emulation — corporal punishment ? 



68 APPENDIX. 

Mr. TV. I use all the purely moral influence I can ; but rewards 
for the meritorious are highly necessary ; and as to the principle of 
emulation, I appeal to it more and more the longer I teach. The evils 
of emulation, such as producing discouragement or exciting envy in the 
less successful scholars, I avoid by equalising the classes as much as 
possible, so that all the scholars of each class may, as to their capabili- 
ties of improvement, be nearly on a level. I know no successful school 
for young scholars where corporal punishment is disused. The teacher 
must retain it as a last resort. 

Jlfr. K. The Bible, prayers, and singing, are most essential helps 
to the consistent teacher in governing his scholars ; but premiums, emu- 
lation, and corporal punishment, have hitherto been found indispensable 
auxiliaries. In our schools we have premiums of books, and in the 
orphan-house there is a prize of fifty dollars annually awarded to each 
of the most meritorious scholars, which is allowed to accumulate in the 
savings bank till the pupil comes of age, when it is given to him to aid 
in establishing him in business. Each teacher keeps a journal, divided 
under different heads, of all the delinquencies of his scholars, and if any 
one has six in a month, he must suffer corporal punishment. The in- 
strument of punishment is a cow-skin ; but no teacher is allowed to 
inflict more than four blows at any one time, or for any offence. This kind 
of punishment is not often needed. Of the three hundred and eighty 
boys in tiie orphan-house, not more than two in a month render them- 
selves liable to it. After the scholar enters the gymnasium, he is no 
longer liable to corporal punishment ; but in all the schools below this, 
it is held in reserve as the last resort. 

Prof. S. I do not approve of rewards as a means of discipline. Em- 
ulation may be appealed to a little ; but much of it is not good, it is so 
liable to call forth bitter and unholy feeling. The skilful teacher, who 
gains the confidence and affection of his scholars, can govern without 
emulation or rewards, and with very little of corporal punishm.ent. In 
a school in Heidelberg of one hundred and fifty children under ten years 
of age, not two in a year suffer this kind of punishment. In Baden the 
teacher is not allowed to strike a scholar without obtaining permission 
of the school-inspector, and in this way all hasty and vindictive punish- 
ments are prevented. The daily singing of religious hymns is one of 
the m.ost efficient means of bringing a school under a perfect discipline 
by moral influence. 

4. What is generally the best method of teaching ? 

Mr. W. As much as possible by conversation ; as little as may be 
by mere book recitation. The pupil must always learn from the book. 

Mr. K. Lively conversation. Very few teachers in Prussia ever us'e 
a book in recitation. The pupils study from books, and recite without 
thein. 

Prof. S. The living word in preference to the dead letter. 

5. Employment of female teachers ? 

Mr. W. For young children they do well ; and if good female teach- 
ers could be obtained, they might, perhaps, carry female education 
through, without the help of male teachers. 

Mr. K. Female teachers have not been much employed in Prussia ; 
they are not generally successful. In a few instances they have done 
well. 



I 



APPENDIX. 69 

Prof. S. Man is the divinely-appointed teacher ; but for small chil- 
dren female teachers do well ; and in respect to all that pertains to the 
heart and the fingers, they are even better than male teachers. It is not 
good that females should be educated entirely by teachers of their own 
sex ; the female cannot be educated completely without the countenance 
of man to work upon the heart. 

6. Is there any difference in the course of instruction for male and 
female schools ? 

JUr. K. None in the primary schools ; but in the higher schools the 
course of instruction for males is more rigidly scientific than for females ; 
and some branches of study are appropriate to the one class of schools 
which do not at all come into the other, and vice versa. 

7. Public endowments for female schools of a high order ? 
JUr. W. There are no such endowments in Scotland. 

Mr. K. There are very few in Prussia ; only one in Berlin, but that 
a very good one. Female schools of a high order are mostly sustained 
by individual effort, under the supervision of the magistrates, but with- 
out aid from the government. 

Prof. S. We have none in Baden, nor are they needed for the fe- 
male. The house is her school ; and such are her susceptibilities, and 
her quickness of apprehension, that she is fitted by Providence to learn 
from real life ; and she often learns thus, more successfully than boys 
can be taught in the school. 

8. Number of studies to be pursued simultaneously in the different 
stages of instruction ? 

Mr. TV. I begin with reading and writing (on slates) together, and, 
as the scholars advance, increase the number of branches, 

Mr. K. We begin all together, reading, writing, arithmetic, gram- 
mar, &c.,and so continue throughout. 

Prof. S. The younger the fev/er, the older the more. 

9. Infant schools ? 

Mr. TV. For children who are neglected by their parents, for poor 
orphans, and such like, they are excellent ; but parents who are able 
to take care of their own children, ought to do it, and not send them 
to the infant school. 

Mr. K. I regard them as highly useful for all classes of children, 
the rich and the poor, the good and the bad ; but the Prussian gov- 
ernment discourages them, except for the vicious and the neglected. 
The King admits them only where parental instruction cannot be 
had. 

Prof. S. Highly useful, and very much increasing in Europe. In 
Italy, particularly in Lombardy, they are fast gaining ground, under 
the care of truly Christian teachers. 

10. The Pestalozzian system ? 

Mr. TV. It has many good things, with some quackery. As a 
whole, it is too formal. 

Mr. K. In Prussia, not approved as a whole, and in arithmetic en- 
tirely disused. 

Prof. S. One of the steps by which we arrived at our present stage 
of advancement ; but we have got beyond it now. 

11. Number of pupils to one teacher in the different stages of in- 
struction ? 



70 APPENDIX. 

Mr. TV. In the elementary stages, if the teacher has good monitors,* 
he may safely take charge of from one to six hundred pupils ; as they 
advance, he must diminish the number, but only on account of the 
diifliculty of obtaining good monitors in the higher branches. 

Mr. K. In Prussia, generally about forty in the elementary branches, 
and in the higher branches fewer. 

Prof. S. In Baden the maximum is eighty, on account of the diffi- 
culty, in that populous district, of maintaining a sufficient number of 
schoolmasters for the whole population. As the scholars advance, the 
number is diminished. 

12. Systematic division of the different branches of instruction in 
schools ? 

Mr. K. The schools in Prussia are all divided according to the dif- 
ferent branches, and each branch has its own teacher. 

Prof. S. Not good to attempt a systematic division in the element- 
ary schools, but very useful for the higher schools. Young children 
need to be brought under the influence of one teacher, and not have 
their attention and affection divided among many. 

13. Mode of instructing those who are preparing themselves to be 
teachers ? 

Mr. TV. Employ them as monitors under a good teacher, with some 
theoretical instruction. This is matter of opinion, not of experience ; 
for we have in Scotland no institutions for the preparation of teach- 
ers. 

Mr. K. In the seminaries for teachers, there are lectures on the 
theory of education, mode of teaching, &c. ; but the pupils are taught 
principally by practical exercises in teaching the scholars of the model- 
schools attached to these institutions, and they also labor to perfect 
themselves in the branches they are to teach. 

Prof. S. The general principles of method may be communicated 
in lectures, but schools for actual practical exercise in teaching are in- 
dispensable. They must also become perfectly familiar with the 
branches they are to teach. 

14. Estimation in which the teacher is held, and his income in pro- 
portion to that of the other professions ? 

Mr. TV. With us, rising, in both respects ; but as yet far below the 
other professions. 

Mr. K. In Prussia, the elementary teachers are highly respected 
and competently maintained ; they rank as the better sort of mechan- 
ics, and the head teachers rank next to clergymen. The salary low — 
that of the subordinate teachers, very low. 

Prof. S. With us, the worthy teacher holds a respectable rank, and 
can sit at table with noblemen. The salary has recently been raised, 
but it is still below that of the clergyman. 

15. Subordination among teachers ? 

Mr. TV. Very desirable, but exceedingly difficult to carry it to any 
extent. 

Mr. K. As strict subordination among the teachers of the school, 
as among the officers of the army. 

* Monitors, in Mr. Wood's school, occupy the place of assistant teachers, and 
each class has its monitor. 



APPENDIX. 71 

Prof. 8. Strict subordination must be maintained. 

16. Mode of securing punctual and universal attendance of scholars 
till the full round of instruction is completed ? 

J\fr. W. By acting on the parents. 

Mr. K. By strict laws, rigorously executed. 

Prof. S. By law. 

17. Control of teachers over their scholars out of school-hours ? 
Mr. W. The laws of the school are never to be violated, even out 

of school-hours. Difficult to carry it any further. 

Mr. IT. The teacher has the control, so far as he can get it. Gov- 
ernment sustains him in it. 

Prof. S. In all that relates to the school, the teacher must have the 
control out of school-hours. 

18. How are schools affected by political changes in the administra- 
tion of the government ? 

Mr. W. We have had fears, but as yet have suffered no actual 
evil. 

Mr. K. We have no changes in Prussia. 

Prof. S. The school must remain sacred and inviolate, untroubled 
by political changes. 

19. School apparatus and library ? 

Mr. W. Very desirable, but little done that way, as yet, in Scot- 
land. 

Mr. K. Most of our schools are provided with them, and we con- 
sider them very important. 

Prof. S. The teachers must have access to good books, and if 
they are industrious and skilful, the pupils will not suffer for want of 
a library. 

20. How can accuracy of teaching be secured ? 
Mr. W. Every thing depends on the teacher. 

Mr. K. Very accurate in Prussia ; the government will have it so. 
Prof. S. The teacher must understand his profession, and devote 
himself to it. 

21. Governmental supervision of schools, and mode of securing 
responsibility, in the supervisors ? 

Mr. TV. I cannot tell. In this country it is very inefficient, as it 
must be, unless the visiters receive pay for their services. 

Mr. K. In this country the governmental supervision is very strict, 
and produces a very happy influence. The supervisors are paid for 
their work, and obliged to attend to it. Responsibility is secured by 
requiring minute and accurate periodical reports, and by a special 
visitation as often as once in three years. 

Prof. S. The supervisors must be paid ; there must be strict sub- 
ordination, accurate returns, and special visitations. 

22. How are good teachers to be obtained in sufficient numbers ? 
Mr. W. I cannot tell. It is difficult here. 

Mr. jr. By means of our teachers' seminaries ; we have them in 
abundance. ~ "' 

Prof. S. By teachers' seminaries, and private teaching, we have 
enough. In your country it must always be difficult, while there is such 
an amount of business accessible which is so much more lucrative. 



72 APPENDIX. 

23. Extent of qualification demanded of elementary teachers ? 
Mr. W. In Scotland there is no general rule. 

Mr. K. Sf Prof. S. In Prussia and Baden, the demands are ample, 
and rigidly enforced. 

24. Governmental supervision of private schools ? 
Mr. TV. Of doubtful expediency. 

Mr. K. Very strict in Prussia, and altogether beneficial in its in- 
fluence. 

Prof. S. Leave the private schools free, but regulate them, and see 
that the teachers do their duty. 

25. Associations of teachers ? 

Mr. W. Not yet introduced in Scotland, but very desirable. 

Mr. K. ^ Prof. S. Highly useful, and demanded and regulated by 
the government. Written essays and discussions, and mutual commu- 
nication of experience, the business of these associations. 



(C.) 

Extracts from the Examination* of Dr. JVicholas Henry Julius, before 
the Education Committee of the British House of Commons, July 
7th, 1834. 

The Earl of Kerry in the chair. 

Are you a native of Prussia ? 

I was born in Hamburgh, but have resided in Prussia. 

Have you been in the habit of making inquiries respecting the state 
of education in Prussia ? 

I conducted a journal partly devoted to popular education, a great 
portion of it filled by official documents furnished me by the Ministry 
of Instruction, presided ov«r by Baron Ahenstein, and consequently 
I am well aware of what is going on in this branch in Prussia. The 
whole journal was conducted under the patronage of the Prussian 
government, which took a number of copies, and distributed them 
among the Regencies and schools throughout the country. 

Have you been in the habit of visiting the schools yourself? 

Yes, in person. 

In a public or private capacity ? 

With an official commission. 

Are the inhabitants of Prussia very much divided in their religion ? 

Yes. In the Rhenish Provinces, in Westphalia, in Silesia, the nam- 

* With the Minutes of this examination, and several other important docu- 
ments, I was politely furnished, by the help of Dr. Bowring, M. P. for Westmln- 
•ter. The questions and answers I have in some instances condensed and 
abridged, which I know Dr. Julius, considering my object of getting as much 
information into as small a space as possible, will excuse me for doing. I pub- 
lish the extracts chiefly for the purpose of confirming and illustrating my own 
statements by the testimony of a man of the high character and ample opportu- 
nities possessed by Dr. Julius. 



APPENDIX. 73 

ber of Protestants and Catholics is nearly equal. But in the whole 
kingdom the proportion is eight Protestants to five Catholics. 

Do the latest returns indicate a state of continual prosperity in the 
schools ? 

Yes, a continued increase of the number of schools, of the number 
of seminaries for teachers, and of the number of pupils. 

Can you state to the committee the expense of the primary schools 
to the government ? 

. The general expense of the whole education is not less than three 
hundred thousand pounds sterling, and makes more than a twenty-fifth 
part of the whole expenditures of the monarchy. 

That is exclusive of the expense borne by the different communes ? 

Yes — which is probably three or four times as much more. 

Does this include the universities ? 

Yes — it does ; I am not able to separate that from elementary in- 
struction. 

What is the salary of a schoolmaster in a common elementary school 
in Prussia ? 

Many have not more than ten pounds (sterling) a year, and some 
have thirty, and in Berlin it may amount to sixty pounds. 

Does that include the house ? 

The house is given besides. 

Has he any land ? 

If there is not any land, when commons are divided there must be 
set apart so much land as would be necessary for feeding a cow, and 
for raising such vegetables as the family of the schoolmaster shall 
require. Sometimes he gets also a certain quantity of potatoes, hay, 
corn, or fuel. 

How much should you think, in an agricultural district, he would 
require to make him comfortable ? 

At least fourteen pounds. 

What would be the salary of a clergyman in such a district? 

From twenty to thirty pounds. 

We have a number of schools in Prussia erected by voluntary sub- 
scription, for criminal boys and girls, and for the offspring of convicts 
and vagrants. There are at present twenty-seven such institutions. 
In Eastern Prussia, one of the poorest of the provinces, there are small 
towns of two thousand five hundred to three thousand inhabitants, 
which have erected such schools for six or twelve children. It would 
be impossible to collect money enough to keep them in a separate 
house. Some half dozen or a dozen Christian, moral, and religious 
families are sought out, mostly schoolmasters, mechanics, and farmers, 
and in each one of these, one of the criminal children is placed. There 
they attend the public schools, on Sundays they attend the church 
service, after which they are catechised, the religious instruction of 
the whole week is repeated, and those parts of their education that 
have been neglected are gone through with. The whole expense of 
each child in such a family is not more than two pounds per annum. 

Are the elementary schoolmasters for the most part competent to 
teach the schools well ? 
7 



74 APPENDIX. 

Certainly they are ; they are all examined, severely examined ; 
there is no one appointed without it. 

How long does a schoolmaster, intended for one of those poorer 
districts, stay in the Seminary for Teachers ? 
Three years is the usual course. 
Would a master so qualified be content with ten pounds a year ? 

Yes. In some parts they cannot get more. 

Do those masters never attempt to increase their income by doing 
any thing on their own account ? 

They have no time to do that, except to take care of their little 
garden. 

Do they not sometimes abandon the profession in consequence of 
their being so very ill paid ? 

It is sometimes the case, but rarely. They are mostly educated at 
the expense of the government, and have opportunity of being pro- 
moted to other schools furnishing better emolument. 

Does the schoolmaster associate with the clergyman on the footing 
of equality ? 

Not entirely on an equality, for the clergyman has always the 
superintendence of the school. 

Does the schoolmaster expect to be a clergyman ? 

No, he cannot ; that is quite a different kind of education. 

What is the general age that a pupil at a seminary begins to be ap- 
pointed to a school ? 

From twenty to twenty-three. 

What is the annual expense which each individual costs to the 
government ? 

I should think about nine or ten pounds annually. 

Are the schoolmasters exempt from service in the army ? 

During the time they are in the school they are entirely ; and after- 
wards, if unemployed, they are obliged to serve only one year in the 
army, and not three years, as others do. 

From what class do the country schoolmasters principally come ? 

Most of the country schoolmasters are the sons of farmers and 
organists, or those who despair of, or who want the means of, study- 
mg long enough to get an appointment as clergymen. 

You said one of the motives of the schoolmaster, in addition to the 
salary received, was the wish to do good. They must generally, then, 
be persons of a religious turn of mind ? 

The whole teaching of the seminaries is directed to instil into them 
a deep feeling of religion. 

How long has this system been established ? 

It has been in full vigor now fifteen years. 

What is the effect on the population ? 

An excellent one. To give a very short account of the good effect 
of this general instruction, I can present the committee with the num- 
ber of young criminal delinquents during different years. In the year 
1828 tiie proportion was one to sixteen thousand nine hundred and 
twenty-four inhabitants. In 1829 it was one to twenty-one thousand 
five hundred and twenty-four ; diminishing, therefore. 

What is the age to which the youths are taken ? 



APPENDIX. 75 

Till sixteen years. 

You cannot state the proportion before this system came into opera- 
tion ? 

No — nobody knows. This was the first year when the Minister 
of Public Instruction gave directions to make lists of the juvenile de- 
linquents. 

Have you ever found any person enlisted in the army, or coming 
before the government in any way, not able to read or write ? 

It is very rarely the case since the new system has been intro- 
duced. 

Has the Prussian government introduced schools into Posen and the 
Polish provinces ? 

Yes. 

Are the Polish and German languages taught in those schools ? 

Yes, both. It is the law, that when the language is other than 
German, both languages be taught. 

Has the effect on the Polish population been evident ? 

There are two or three sources of improvement of the Polish popula- 
tion. The first is the training of children in schools, which was never 
done before. The second is the three years' service in the army. 
We have regimental schools — schools for soldiers and non-commis- 
sioned officers, and the officers, before being promoted, are examined. 
The Polanders come into the army very uncouth, but they return very 
nice young men. They give the example, usually marrying after their 
return, and are of great use to their neighbors. The third source of 
improvement is the taking away of the immense number of manual 
taxes which existed in Poland. 

What is the penalty on parents for not sending their children to 
school ? 

To pay a fine, or they are sent to prison. 

Would the parent be liable to a fine unless it could be shown he 
had not sent his child ? 

Yes. 

What kind of punishment is inflicted on the child ? 

Corporal punishment, and that as little as possible. 

Does the same law exist in the manufacturing districts of Prussia ? 

Yes. 

Are no children employed in manufactories under fourteen ? 

Yes ; but then proprietors of the manufactories must send them to 
the evening schools, and some of them have established, at their own 
expense, schools for the children. 

The law, then, is modified to suit the peculiar circumstances of 
those districts ? 

There is an indulgence given to the manufacturing districts. 

Is it found that a child can attend school and also work in a manu- 
factory at the same time — in the same day, for instance ? 

It has been found that it is not always the case. We had, in Berlin, 
evening schools for such children. Those were afterwards changed 
to morning schools, because it was found that the children were too 
weak and too drowsy to give attention to what they were taught in 
the evening. 



76 APPENDIX. 

How many hours a day is the child, who is put to this employment 
in the manufactory, expected to stay at the school? 

Two hours at least — and, besides that, on Sunday. 

Do the clergymen, both Catholic and Protestant, take great pains to 
see that the children attend school ? 

Yes. 

Do you know any instance in which a difficulty has arisen on ac- 
count of the religious belief of the different parts of the community? 

No. They are quite separate in religious instruction. If the com- 
mune can afford the means, they are separated into different schools. 
But when only one can be erected, the religious instruction is given 
by different persons. It is usual to give the religious izistructiou in 
the morning, because the attention is then freshest. 

How many different sects are there in Prussia ? 

There are Catholics and Protestants, the Lutherans and the Cal- 
vinists, some very few Mennonites, and some Jews. 

Are not the Lutherans and Calvinists now united ? 

Yes. Not throughout the whole monarchy, but in some divisions 
of it, the union being promoted by the government ; so that, when 
the different members of the church are pleased to do this, the gov- 
ernment gives every facility. 

Suppose a school contains both Catholics and Protestants : do both 
the Protestant and Catholic clergymen superintend it ? 

Yes. 

Do you jfind there is any difficulty ? 

No — in general not. 

Does the Protestant father have no apprehension that the Catholic 
master will try to make a convert of his son, or vice versa! 

No. The children are always educated in the religion of the father. 

How can they teach the history of the Reformation in such schools ? 

It is taught only very generally. 

Is there any considerable portion of time devoted to religious in- 
struction ? 

Yes ; from four to six hours a week, there being a religious lesson 
almost every day. 

Are there prayers in the schools ? 

Yes, always, at the beginning and the end. 

Suppose the children are of mixed character as to religion ? 

The master would have a prayer equally approved by the different 
sects. 

Are the Jewish children obliged to attend during the prayer ? 

Yes. The moment the children have taken their seats, they rise, 
and one of them, the monitors, or the teacher himself, engages in 
prayer, while the children stand. 

Have they forms of prayer among the Lutherans ? 

Yes. But in some parts I believe they are also extemporaneous. 

You have not stated what payment is required from each child ? 

It varies ; I am not sure what it is. 

Even the very poor parents do pay something for the tuition of their 
children ? 

Yes, a small contribution ; but those who are receiving alms, 



APPENDIX. 77 

those on the poor-list, do not pay. There are schools for the poor, 
and, besides, some free places in most of the grammar-schools. 

Do you remember, from your own knowledge, what the character 
and attainments of the schoolmasters were previous to the year 1819 ? 

I do not recollect ; but I do know they were very badly composed 
of non-commissioned officers, organists, and half-drunken people. It 
has not risen like a fountain at once. Since 1770, there has been 
much done in Prussia and throughout Germany for promoting a proper 
education of teachers, and by them of children. 

In your own observation has there been a very marked improvement 
in the character and attainments of schoolmasters, owing to the pains 
taken to which you have referred ? 

A very decided improvement. 

In these schools is there a perfect equality of privileges to persons 
of all religious denominations ? 

Yes, without any distinction. 

Are the Jews allowed to have any share in the management of the 
public schools ? 

No, they are not ; their children may attend the schools, but when 
they are numerous enough, or wealthy enough, they may erect a 
separate school. We have an example in the town of Munster, where 
they have erected so excellent a school, that many Christian children, 
both Catholics and Protestants, attend it. 

The schoolmaster is named of that persuasion of which a majority 
of the children consist ? 

Usually. ' 

Js there always one of the faith of the minority ? 

Not a schoolmaster, but a religious teacher. 

Is there a religious te^t in any of the schools ? 

No. 

Who appoints the Board of Superintendents in the districts ? 

They are partly chosen by the inhabitants, and partly by the gov- 
ernment. 

Are the schools in Prussia endowed with land ? 

In some instances they are. The whole church lands also reverted 
and were put at the disposal of the State. When convents and other 
ecclesiastical institutions were suppressed, they were given to the 
general school-fund. 

Are female teachers employed in the schools ? 

In every school where female teachers are, there is at the same 
-time one male teacher. They are never quite alone. We have ex- 
cellent seminaries for female teachers, principally in the province of 
Westphalia. They were founded on the old Catholic bishoprics of 
Munster and Paderborn ; and the system has been found to do so much 
good, that the Prussian government is now endeavoring to introduce 
female teachers throughout the monarchy. 

Of how many kinds are the elementary schools ? 

Of the popular schools there are three gradations. The first are 

elementary schools, which are for the whole mass of the population. 

By the law of Prussia, every child, from its sixth to the end of its 

fourteenth year, must be kept at school by its parent or guardian. The 

7# 



78 APPENDIX. 

indispensable branches taught are, 1st, Religion ; 2dly, Arithmetic ; 
3dly, Singing ; 4thly, Reading ; 5thly, Writing ; 6thly, Gymnastic 
exercises ; and in the large elementary schools there are taught, in 
addition to these, 7thly, the German language ; SthLy, the elements 
of Geometry and Drawing ; 9thly, the elements of Physic, Geography, 
and Prussian history ; and, lOthiy, simple manual labor and agricul- 
ture. In the schools for girls, female works are added, sewing, knit- 
ting, and so on. This is the first gradation, and every district or com- 
mune is bound to have such a school. If a commune is too poor to 
maintain a school by itself, it may combine with the neighboring one, 
provided that the children of both can come together at all seasons of 
the year without too great inconvenience. If this cannot be done, the 
commune must apply first to the consistory of the province, which 
will aid it with funds to a certain amount ; but if more help is neces- 
sary, they must apply to the Minister of Public Instruction, who will 
make up the deficiency. 

The middle schools are the second gradation. They are formed 
only in towns, not in the country. The branches taught in them are, 
1st, Religion and Morals ; 2dly, Reading, the German language, the 
German classics. Composition, and Style ; 3dly, Foreign modern lan- 
guages ; 4thly, Latin, as much as is needed to exercise the faculties 
and judgement ; 5thly, the elements of Mathematics, and a complete 
practical Arithmetic ; 6thly, Natural Philosophy, to explain the phe- 
nomena of Nature; Chemistry and Natural History; 7thly, Geography, 
the tise of the Globes, Astronomy, and History, especially of Prussia ; 
Stilly, Drawing ; 9thly, Ornamental Writing ; lOthly, Singing ; llthly, 
Gymnastic exercises. 

Does every town have a middle school ? 

Not every tov^n, but the large towns, that is, towns of three or four 
thousand inhabitants. The law demands a middle school for a tov/n 
of fifteen hundred inhabitants, but indulgence is shown those smaller 
places which already have good schools of the first gradation. 

At what age do the children go to the middle schools ? 

It depends not upon their age, but their knowledge. 

Are the masters of these middle schools trained in the same semi- 
naries as the teachers of the elementary schools ? 

There are sometimes, but not always, separate seminaries for them. 

Is it equally obligatory to send children to the middle schools ? 

No. They may or may not. 

Are they more expensive than the schools of the first gradation ? 

Yes. 

Are the boys and girls, who go to those middle schools, from the 
families of tradesmen and opulent farmers ? 

Not opulent, but in such a situation that they can afford to pay a 
little more. There are also mechanics in good circumstances who 
send their children there. Every one who can afibrd it may do it. 

Will you state the number of middle schools, pupils, &c. ? 

In the year 1831 there were middle schools for boys, four hundred 
and eighty-one ; for girls, three hundred and forty-two ; in all, eight 
hundred and twenty-three. Of pupils, there were boys, fifty-six thou- 
sand eight hundred and seventy-nine ; girls, forty thousand five hundred 



APPENDIX. 79 

and ninety-eight ; in all, ninety-seven thousand four hundred and 
seventy-seven. Of teachers, there were males, two thousand two hun- 
dred and ninety-six ; females, two hundred and forty-one. In the 
middle schools the different branches of instruction are usually taught 
by different teachers. 

How many hours per day does the tuition of the middle schools 
continue ? 

Seven hours, except Wednesdays and Saturdays, when there is no 
school in the afternoon. 



80 



APPENDIX. 



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NORMAL SCHOOLS 

AND 

TEACHEHS' SEMINARIES 



" Ich versprach Gott : Ich will jedes preussische Bauerkind fur ein 
Wesen ansehen, das mich bei Gott verklagen kann, wenn ich ihm 
nicht die beste Menschen- und Christen-Bildung schafFe, die ich ihm 
zu schaffen vermag." 

" I promised God, that I would look upon every Prussian peasant 
child as a being who could complain of me before God, if I did not 
provide for him the best education, as a man and a Christian, which it 
was possible for me to provide." 

. Dinter^s Letter to Baron Von Altenstein. 

When the benevolent Franke turned his attention to 
the subject of popular education in the city of Hamburgh, 
late in the seventeenth century, he soon found that chil- 
dren could not be well taught without good teachers, and 
that but few good teachers could be found unless they 
were regularly trained for the profession. Impressed with 
this conviction, he bent all his energies towards the es- 
tabhshment of a Teachers' Seminary, in which he finally 
succeeded, at Halle, in Prussia, about the year 1704; 
and from this first institution of the kind in Europe, well- 
quahfied teachers were soon spread over all the north of 
Germany, who prepared the way for that great revolution 
in public instruction, which has since been so happily ac- 
compHshed under the auspices of Frederick William III. 
and his praiseworthy coadjutors. Every enlightened man, 
who, since the time of Franke, has in earnest turned his 
attention to the same subject, has been brought to the 
same result ; and the recent movements in France, in 
Scotland; in Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, 



84 NORMAL SCHOOLS AND 

Ohio, and other States in the American Union, all attest the 
very great difficulty, if not entire impossibility, of carrying 
out an efficient system of pubHc instruction without semi- 
naries expressly designed for the preparation of teachers. 

Having devoted some attention to this subject, and hav- 
ing spent considerable time in examining institutions of 
the kind already estabhshed in Europe, I propose in this 
paper to exhibit the result of my investigations. In 
exhibiting this result I have thought proper to draw out, 
somewhat in detail, what I suppose would be the best 
plan, on the whole, without expecting that all parts of the 
plan, in the present state of education in our country, will 
be carried into immediate execution. I propose what I 
think ought to be aimed at, and what I doubt not will ul- 
timately be attained, if the spirit which is now awake on 
the subject be not suffered again to sleep. 

The sum of what I propose is contained in the six fol- 
lowing propositions, namely: 

I. The interests of popular education in each State 
demand the establishment, at the seat of government, and 
under the patronage of the Legislature, of a Normal 
School,* that is, a Teachers'' Seminary and model-school^ 
for the instruction aud practice of teachers in the science 
of education and the art of teaching. 

II. Pupils should not be received into the Teachers' 
Seminary under sixteen years of age, nor until they are 
well versed in all the branches usually taught in common 
schools. 

III. The model-school should comprise the various 
classes of children usually admitted to the common 
schools, and should be subject to the same general dis- 
cipline and course of study. 

IV. The course of instruction in the Teachers' Semi- 
nary should include three years, and the pupils be divided 
into three classes, accordingly. 

* The French adjective normal is derived from the Latin noun 
norma, vv^hich signifies a carpenter''s square, a rule, a pattern, a mod- 
el ; and the very general use of this term to designate institutions for 
the preparation of teachers, leads us at once to the idea of a model- 
school for practice, as an essential constituent part of a Teachers^ 
Seminary. 



85. 

V. The senior classes in the Teachers' Seminarjr 
should be employed, under the immediate instruction of 
their professors, as instructers in the model-school. 

VI. The course of instruction in the Teachers' Semi- 
nary should comprise lectures and recitations on the fol- 
lowing topics, together with such others as further obser- 
vation and experience may show to be necessary : 

1. A thorough, scientific, and demonstrative study of 
all the branches to be taught in the common schools, with 
directions at every step as to the best method of incul- 
cating each lesson upon children of different dispositions 
and, capacities, and various intellectual habits. 

2. The philosophy of mind, particularly in reference 
to its susceptibihty of receiving impressions from mind. 

3. The pecuharities of intellectual and moral develope- 
ment in children, as modified by sex, parental character, 
wealth or poverty, city or country, family government, in- 
dulgent or severe, fickle or steady, &c. &c. 

4. The science of education in general, and full illus- 
trations of the difference between education and mere 
instruction. 

5. The art of teaching. 

6. The art of governing children, with special refer- 
ence to imparting and keeping alive a feeling of love for 
children. 

7. History of education, including an accurate outline 
of the educational systems of different ages and nations, 
the circumstances which gave rise to them, the principles 
on which they were founded, the ends which they aimed 
to accomplish, their successes and failures, their perma- 
nency and changes, how far they influenced individual and 
national character, how far any of them might have origi- 
nated in premeditated plan on the part of their founders, 
whether they secured the intelligence, virtue, and happi- 
ness of the people, or otherwise, with the causes, &c. 

8. The rules of health, and the laws of physical de- 
velopement. 

9. Dignity and importance of the teacher's office. 

10. Special religious obligations of teachers in respect 
to benevolent devotedness to the intellectual and moral 

8 



86 NORMAL SCHOOLS AND 

welfare of society, habits of entire self-control, purity of 
mind, elevation of character, &c. 

11. The influence which the school should exert on 
civihzation and the progress of society. 

12. The elements of Latin, together with the German, 
French, and Spanish languages. 

On each of the topics above enumerated, I shall at- 
tempt to offer such remarks as may be necessary to their 
more full developement and illustration ; and then state the 
argument in favor of, and answer the objections which may 
be urged against, the estabhshment of such an institution 
as is here contemplated. 

To begin with the first proposition. 

I. The interests of popular education in each State 
demand the establishment, at the seat of government, and 
under the patronage of the Legislature, of a Normal 
School, that is, a Teachers' Seminary and model-school, 
for the instruction and practice of teachers in the science 
of education and the art of teaching. 

If there be necessity for such an institution, there can 
be little doubt that the Legislature should patronise and 
sustain it ; for, new as our country is, and numerous as 
are the objects to which individual capital must be applied, 
there can be no great hope, for many years to come, of 
seeing such institutions established and supported by pri- 
vate munificence. It is a very appropriate object of 
legislative patronage ; for, as the advantages of such an in- 
stitution are clearly open to all the citizens of the State, 
and equally necessary to all, it is right that each should 
sustain his proper share of the expense. 

Reserving my general argument in favor of these estab- 
lishments till after a more full developement of their object, 
organization, and course of study, I shall confine my re- 
marks under this head to the subject of legislative patron- 
age, and the influence which such an institution would ex- 
ert, thi'ough the Legislature and officers of government, on 
the people at large. And in order that the institution 
may exert the influence here contemplated, it will appear 
obviously necessary that it be placed at the seat of govern- 
ment. 



87 

Popular legislators ought to have some objects in view 
besides the irritating and often petty questions of party- 
politics. Any observing man, who has watched the prog- 
ress of popular legislation among us, cannot but have no- 
ticed the tendency of continued and uninterrupted party 
bickering to narrow the mind and sour the temper of po- 
litical men, to make them selfish, unpatriotic, and unprin- 
cipled. It is highly necessary for their improvement as 
men, and as republican lawgivers, that the bitterness and 
bigotry of party strife should sometimes be checked by 
some great object of public utility, in which good men of 
all parties may unite, and the contemplation and discussion 
of which shall enlarge the views and elevate the affections. 
The Legislatures of several States have already had expe- 
rience of these benefits. The noble institutions for deaf 
mutes, for the blind, and for the insane, which have grown 
up under their care, and been sustained by their bounty, 
are not less beneficial by the moral influence they exert, 
every year, on the officers of government who witness 
their benevolent operations, than by the physical and in- 
tellectual blessings which they confer on the unfortunate 
classes of persons for whom they were more particularly 
designed. Who can witness the proficiency of the bhnd 
and the mute in that knowledge which constitutes the 
charm of life, as witnessed in the annual exhibitions of 
these institutions at Columbus, during the sessions of the 
Legislature, without feeling the blessedness of benevo- 
lence, and inwardly resolving to be himself benevolent ? 
Without some such objects in view, political character 
deteriorates, and the legislator sinks to the demagogue. 
When our American Congress has had noble objects in 
view ; when it has been struggling for the rights of man, 
and the great principles which are the foundation of free 
institutions, it has been the nursery of patriotism and the 
theatre of great thoughts and mighty deeds ; but when its 
objects have been mean, and its aims selfish, how sad the 
reverse in respect to its moral character and national influ- 



ence 



Colleges, and institutions for the higher branches of 
classical learning, have seldom flourished in this country 



88 NORMAL SCHOOLS AND 

\ 

under legislative patronage ; because the people at large, 
not perceiving that these institutions are directly beneficial 
to them, allow their legislators to give them only a hes- 
itating, reluctant, and insufficient support. No steady, 
well-digested plan of improvement is carried consistently 
through, but the measures are vacillating, contradicto- 
ry, and often destructive, not from want of sagacity to 
perceive what is best, but simply from Vvant of interest 
in the object, and a consequent determination to maintain 
it at the cheapest rate. But an institution of the kind 
here contemplated, the people at large will feel to be for 
their immediate benefit. It is to qualify teachers for the 
instruction of their own children ; and among the people 
throughout most of the free States, there is an apprecia- 
tion of the advantages and necessity of good common- 
school instruction, which makes them willing to incur 
heavy sacrifices for the sake of securing it. They will, 
therefore, cheerfully sustain their legislators in any meas- 
ure which is seen to be essential to the improvement and 
perfection of the common-school system ; and that the 
estabhshment of a Normal School is essential to this, I 
expect to prove in the course of this discussion. 

Supposing the institution to be estabhshed at the seat 
of government, under proper auspices, the Legislature 
would every year witness its beneficial results ; they 
would attend the exhibitions of its pupils both in the sem- 
inary and in the model-school, as they now, in several 
States, attend the exhibitions of the blind and mute ; their 
views would be enlarged, their affections moved, their 
ideas of what constitutes good education settled ; they 
would return to their constituents full of zeal and confi- 
dence in the educational cause, and impart the same to 
them ; they would learn how schools ought to be con- 
ducted, the respective duties of parents, teachers, and 
school officers ; they would become the most efficient 
missionaries of pubhc instruction ; and, ere long, one of 
the most important errands from their constituents would 
be, to find for them, in the Teachers' Seminary, a suit- 
able instructer for their district school. Such an influ- 
ence will be to the school system, what electricity is 



teachers' seminaries. 89 

to the operations of Nature, an influence unceasing, all- 
pervading, lightning-winged. 

The Superintendent of Pubhc Instruction, in every 
State, would be essentially aided by such an institution 
at the seat of government. He greatly needs it as a 
fulcrum to pry over, when he would move the Legisla- 
ture or the people. He cannot bring the Legislature 
to the common schools, nor these to the Legislature, to 
illustrate existing deficiencies or recommend improve- 
ments ; but here is a model constructed under his own 
eye, which he can at any moment exhibit to the Legis- 
lature, and by which he can give complete illustrations 
of all his views. 

As the young men in the seminary grow up, he watch- 
es their progress, and ascertains the peculiar qualifica- 
tions and essential characteristics of each individual ; 
and, as he passes through the State, and learns the cir- 
cumstances and wants of each community, he knows 
where to find the teacher best fitted to carry out his 
views, and give efficiency to the system in each particu- 
lar location. Nothing is lost ; the impression which he 
makes is immediately followed up and deepened by the 
teacher, before it has time to cool and disappear. A 
superintendent of schools without a Teachers' Semina- 
ry, is a general without soldiers, depending entirely on 
the services of such volunteers as he can pick up on his 
march, most of whom enlist but for the day, and go 
home to sleep at night. 

Such is a brief view of the reasons for legislative 
patronage, and a location at the seat of government. I 
do not imagine that one institution will be enough to sup- 
ply the wants of a whole State ; but let the one be 
established first, and whatever, others are needful will 
speedily follow. * 

We now proceed to our second general proposition. 

II. Pupils should not be received into the Teachers' 

* This article was written in its special reference to Ohio, and the 
new States of the West. In some of the older States, the expense 
of living at the seat of government might operate as an objection to 
the location of the Seminary there. 

8* 



90 NORMAL SCHOOLS AND 

Seminary under sixteen years of age, nor until they are 
well versed in all the branches usually taught in the 
common schools. 

The age at which the pupils leave the common school 
is the proper age for entering the Teachers' Semina- 
ry, and the latter should begin just where the former 
closes. This is young enough ; for few persons have 
their judgements sufficiently matured, or their feehngs 
under sufficient control, to engage in school-teaching by 
themselves, before they are twenty years old. It is not 
the design of the Teachers' Seminary to go through the 
common routine of the common-school course, but a 
thorough grounding in this is to be assumed as the found- 
ation on which to erect the structure of the teacher's 
education. 

III. The model-school should comprise the various 
classes of children usually admitted to the common 
schools, and should be subject to the same general dis- 
cipline and course of study. 

The model-school, as its name imports, is to be a 
model of what the common school ought to be ; and it 
must be, therefore, composed of like materials, and sub- 
ject to similar rules. The model-school, in fact, should 
be the common school of the place in which the Teach- 
ers' Seminary is situated ; it should aim to keep in ad- 
vance of every other school in the State, and every 
other school in the State should aim to keep up with 
that. It is a model for the constant inspection of the 
pupils in the teachers' department, a practical illustration 
of the lessons they receive from their professors ; the 
proof-stone by which they are to test the utihty of the 
abstract principles they imbibe, and on which they are 
to exercise and improve their gifts of teaching. Indeed, 
as School-counsellor Dinter told a nobleman of East 
Prussia, to set up a Teachers' Seminary without a mod- 
el-school, is hke setting up a shoe- maker's shop without 
leather. 

IV. The course of instruction in the Teachers' Sem- 
inary should include three years, and the pupils be di- 
vided into three classes, accordingly. 



teachers' seminaries. 91 

The course of study, as will be seen by inspecting it 
in the following pages, cannot well be completed in less 
time than this ; this has been found short enough for 
professional study in the other professions, which is gen- 
erally commenced at a maturer age, and after the pupil 
has had the advantage of an academical or collegiate 
course ; and if it is allowed that five or seven years are 
not too much to be spent in acquiring the trade of a 
blacksmith, a carpenter, or any of the common indis- 
pensable handicrafts, surely three years will not be deem- 
ed too much for the difficult and most important art of 
teaching. 

V. The senior class in the Teachers' Seminary should 
be employed, under the immediate inspection of their 
professors, as instructers in the model-school. The 
model-school is intended to be not only an illustration 
of the principles inculcated theoretically in the seminary, 
but is calculated alsoas a school for practice, in which 
the seminary pupils may learn, by actual experiment, 
the practical bearing of the principles which they have 
studied. After two years of theoretical study, the pupils 
are well qualified to commence this practical course, un- 
der the immediate inspection of their professors ; and 
the model-school being under the inspection of such 
teachers, it is obvious that its pupils can suffer no loss, 
but must be great gainers by the arrangement. 

This is a part of the system for training teachers which 
cannot be dispensed with, and any considerable hope of 
success retained. To attempt to train practical teachers 
without it, would be like attempting to train sailors by 
keeping boys upon Bowditch's Navigator, without ever 
suffering them to go on board a ship, or handle a rope- 
yarn. One must begin to teach, before he can begin to 
be a teacher ; and it is infinitely better, both for himself 
and his pupils, that he should make this beginning under 
the eye of an experienced teacher, who can give him 
directions and point out his errors, than that he should 
blunder on alone, at the risk of ruining multitudes of pu- 
pils, before he can learn to teach by the slow process of 
unaided experience. 



92 NORMAL SCHOOLS AND 

VI. Course of instruction in the Teachers' Seminary. 

1. A thorough, scientific, and demonstrative study of 
all the branches to be taught in the common schools, with 
directions, at every step, as to the best method of incul- 
cating each lesson on children of different dispositions 
and capacities, and various intellectual habits. 

It is necessary here to give a general outline of a 
course of study for the common schools of this country. 
The pupils usually in attendance are between the ages 
of six and sixteen, and I would arrange them in three 
divisions, as follows : 

First Division, including the youngest children, and 
those least advanced, generally between the ages of six 
and nine. 

Topics of rastruction. 

1. Familiar conversational teaching, in respect to ob- 
jects which fall daily under their notice, and in respect 
to their moral and social duties, designed to awaken their 
powers of observation and expression, and to cultivate 
their moral feelings. 

2. Elements of reading. 

3. Elements of WTiting. 

4. Elements of numbers. 

5. Exercises of the voice and ear — singing by rote. 

6. Select readings in the Pentateuch, Psalms, and 
Gospels. 

Second Division, including those more advanced, 
and generally between the ages of nine and twelve. 

Topics of Instruction, 

1. Exercises in reading. 

2. Exercises in writing. 

3. Arithmetic. 

4. Elements of geography, and geography of the Uni- 
ted States. 

5. History of the United States. 

6. Moral and religious instruction in select Bible nar- 
ratives, parables, and proverbs. 



93 

7. Elements of music, and singing by note. 

8. English grammar and parsing. 

Third Division, most advanced, and generally be- 
tween the ages of twelve and sixteen. 

Topics of Instruction. 

1. Exercises in reading and elocution. 

2. Caligraphy, stenography, and linear drawing. 

3. Algebra, geometry, and trigonometry, with their 
application to civil engineering, surveying, &c. 

4. English composition, forms of business, and book- 
keeping. 

5. General geography, or knowledge of the earth and 
of mankind. 

6. General history. 

7. Constitution of the United States, and of the sev- 
eral States. 

8. Elements of the natural sciences, including their 
application to the arts of life, such as agriculture, manu- 
factures, &c. 

9. Moral instruction in the connected Bible liistory, 
the hfe and discourses of Christ, the religious observa- 
tion of Nature, and history of Christianity. 

10. Science and art of vocal and instrumental music. 
Thorough instruction on all these topics I suppose to 

be essential to a complete common-school education ; 
and though it may be many years before our schools 
come up to this standard, yet I think nothing short of 
this should satisfy us ; and as fast as possible we should 
be laboring to train teachers capable of giving instruc- 
tion in all these branches. When this standard for the 
common school has been attained, then, before the pupil 
is prepared to enter on the three years' course of study 
proposed in the Teachers' Seminary, he must have stud- 
ied all the topics above enumerated, as they ought to be 
studied in the common schools. 

The study of a topic, hov/ever, for the purpose of ap- 
plying it to practical use, is not always the same thing as 
studying it for the purpose of teaching it. The process- 



94 NORMAL SCHOOLS AXD 

es are often quite diiterent. A man may study music 
till he can perform admirably himself, and yet possess 
very httle skill in teaching others ; and it is well known 
that the most successful orators are not unfrequently the 
very worst teachers of elocution. The process of learn- 
ing for practical purposes, is mostly that of combination 
or synthesis ; but the process of learning for the purpose 
of teaching, is one of continued and minute analysis, net 
only of the subject itself, but of all the movements and 
turnings of the feelers of the mind, the little antennce by 
which it seizes and retains its hold of the several parts 
of a topic. Till a man can minutely dissect, not only 
the subject itself, but also the intellectual machinery by 
which it is worked up, he cannot be very successful as 
a teacher. The orator analyzes his subject, and dispo- 
ses its several parts in the order best calculated for ef- 
fect ; but the mental processes by which he does this, 
which constitute the tact that enables him to judge right, 
as if by instinct, are generally so rapid, so evanescent, 
that it may be impossible for him to recall them so as to 
describe them to another ; and it is this very rapidity of 
intellectual movement, which gives him success as an 
orator, that renders it the more difficult for him to suc- 
ceed as a teacher.- The musician would perform very 
poorly, who should stop to recognise each vohtion that 
moves the muscles which regulate the movement of his 
fingers on the organ-keys ; but he who would teach oth- 
ers to perform gracefully and rapidly, must give attention 
to points minute as these. The teacher must stop to 
observe and analyze each movement of the mind itself, 
as it advances on every topic : but men of genius for 
execution, and of great practical skill, who never teach, 
are generally too impatient to make this minute analysis, 
and often, indeed, form such habits as at length to be- 
come incapable of it. The first Duke of Marlborough 
was one of the most profound and brilliant military men 
that ever lived ; but he had been so httle accustomed to 
observe the process of his own mind, by which he ar- 
rived vv'ith such certainty at those astounding results of 
warlike genius which have given him the first rank 



teachers' seminaries. 95 

among Britain's soldiers, that he could seldom con- 
struct a connected argument in favor of his plans, and 
generally had but one answer to all the objections which 
might be urged against them, and that was usually repeated 
in the same words, — "Silly, silly, that's silly." A like 
remark is applicable to Oliver Cromwell, and several 
other men distinguished for prompt and energetic action. 
The mental habits best adapted for effect in the actual 
business of life, are not always the mental habits best 
suited to the teacher ; and the Teachers' Seminary re- 
quires a mode of instruction in some respects different 
from the practical school. 

The teacher also must review the branches of instruc- 
tion above enumerated with reference to their scientific 
connexions, and a thorough demonstration of them, 
which, though not always necessary in respect to their 
practical application to the actual business of life, is ab- 
solutely essential to that ready command which a teach- 
er must have over them in order to put them into the 
minds of others. 

Nor is this all. There is a great variety of methods 
for inculcating the same truth ; and the diversities of 
mind are quite as numerous as the varieties of method. 
One mind can be best approached by one method, and 
another mind by another ; and in respect to the teacher, 
one of the richest treasures of experience is a knowl- 
edge of the adaptation of the different methods to different 
minds. These rich treasures of experience can be pre- 
served, and classified, and imparted in the Teachers' 
Seminary. If the teacher never studies his profession, 
he learns this part of his duties only by the slow" and 
wasteful process of experimenting on mind, and thus, in 
all probability, ruins many before he learns how to deal 
with them. Could we ascertain how many minds have 
been lost to the world in consequence of the injudicious 
measures of inexperienced and incompetent teachers, if 
we could exhibit, in a statistical table, the number of 
souls which must be used up in qualifying a teacher for 
his profession, by intrusting him with its active duties 
without previous study, we could prove incontrovertibly 



96 NORMAL SCHOOLS AND 

that it Is great want of economy, that it is a most pro- 
digious waste, to attempt to cany on a system of schools 
without making provision for the education of teachers. 

2. The philosophy of mind, particularly in reference 
to its susceptibihty of receiving impressions from mind. 

The teacher should learn, at least, not to spoil by his 
awkward handling what Nature has made well ; he should 
know how to preserve the intellectual and moral powers 
in a healthful condition, if he be not capable of improving 
them. But, through ignorance of the nature of mind, and 
its susceptibilities, how often are a teacher's most indus- 
trious efforts worse than thrown away — perverting and 
destroying rather than improving ! Frequently, also, the 
good which is gained by judicious efforts in one direction 
is counteracted by a mistaken course in another. 

Under this head there should be a complete classifica- 
tion of the sources of influence, a close analysis of the pe- 
culiar nature and causes of each, and of its apphcability to 
educational purposes. There should be also a classifica- 
tion of the errors liable to be committed, with a similar 
analysis, and directions for avoiding them. It appears to 
me that there are some valuable discoveries yet to be made 
in this branch of knowledge ; and that, for the purposes 
of education, the powers of the mind are susceptible of a 
classification much better than that which has hitherto 
generally been adopted. 

3. The peculiarities of intellectual and moral develope- 
ment in children, as modified b}^ sex, parental character, 
wealth or poverty, city or country, family government, 
indulgent or severe, fickle or steady, &c. ' 

These diversities all exist in every community, and ex- 
ert a most important influence on the developements of 
children ; and no teacher can discharge his duties dili- 
gently and thoroughly without recognising this extensive 
class of influences. The influence of sex is one of the 
most obvious, and no successful teacher, I believe, ever 
manages the boys and the girls of his school in precisely the 
same manner. But the other sources of influence are no 
less important. Parental character is one. Parents of 
high-minded and honorable feehng, will be likely to im- 



teachers' seminaries. 97 

part something of the same spirit to their children. Such 
children may be easily governed by appeals to their sense 
of character, and perhaps ruined by the application of the 
rod. If parents are mean-spirited and selfish, great allow- 
ance should be made for the failings of their children, 
and double diligence employed to cultivate in them a sense 
of honor. 

The different circumstances of wealth and poverty pro-^ 
duce great differences in children. The rich child gen- 
erally requires restraint, the poor one, encouragement. 
When the poor are brought in contact with the rich, it is 
natural that the former should feel somewhat sensitive as 
to the distinctions v/hich may obtain between them and 
their fellows ; and in such cases special pains should be 
taken to shield the sensibilities of the poor child against 
needless wounds, and make him feel that the poverty for 
which he is no wayblamable is not to him a degradation. 
Otherwise he may become envious and misanthropic, or 
be discouraged and unmanned. But how often does tte 
reverse of this take place, to the great injury of the char^ 
acter both of the poor and the rich ! Surely it is misfor- 
tune enough to the suffering child that he has to bear the ills 
arising from ignorance or negligence, vice or poverty, in 
his parents ; and the school should be a refuge for him, 
where he can improve himself and be happy. 

Again, city and country produce diversities in children 
almost as great as the difference of sex. City children 
are inclined to the ardent, quick, glowing temperament of 
the female ; country children lean more to the cooler, 
steadier, slower developement of the male. City chil- 
dren are more excitable ; by the circumstances in which 
they are placed, their feelings are kept in more constant 
and rapid motion, they are more easily moved to good, 
and have stronger temptation to evil ; while country chil- 
dren, less excitable, less rapid in their advances towards 
either good or evil, present, in their pecuHarities, a broad 
and solid foundation for characters of stable structure and 
enduring usefulness. Though human nature is every 
where the same, and schools present the same general 
characteristics ; yet the good country teacher, if he re- 
9 



98 NORMAL SCHOOLS AND 

move to the city, and would be equally successful tliere, 
will find it necessary to adopt several modifications of his 
former arrangements. 

Many other circumstances give rise to diversities no 
less important. It is the business of the Teachers' Semi- 
nary to arrange and classify these modifying influences, 
and give to the pupil the advantages of an anticipated 
experience in respect to his method of proceeding in re- 
gard to them. No one will imagine that the teacher is to 
let his pupils see that he recognises such differences 
among them ; he should be wise enough to keep his own 
counsel, and deal with each individual in such manner 
as the peculiar circumstances of each may render most 
productive of good. 

4. The science of education in general, and full illus- 
tration of the difference between education and mere in- 
struction. 

Science, in the modern acceptation of the term, is a 
philosophical classification and arrangement of all the 
facts which are observed in respect to any subject, and an 
investigation from these facts of the principles which 
regulate their occurrence. Education affords its facts, 
and they are as numerous and as deeply interesting as the 
facts of any other science ; these facts are susceptible of 
as philosophical a classification and arrangement as the 
facts of chemistry or astronomy ; and the principles which 
regulate their occurrence are as appropriate and profitable 
a subject of investigation as the principles of botany or 
zo-ology, or of politics or morals. I know it has been 
said by some, that education is not a science, and cannot 
be reduced to scientific principles ; but they who talk 
thus either make use of words without attaching to them 
any definite meaning, or they confound the idea of edu- 
cation with that of the mere art of teaching. Even in 
this sense the statement is altogether erroneous, as will be 
shown under the next head. 

The teacher should be acquainted with these facts, 
with their classification, their arrangement and principles, 
before he enters on the duties of his profession ; or he is 
like the surgeon who would operate on the human body 



teachers' seminaries. 99 

before he has studied anatomy, or the attorney who would 
commence practice before he has made himself acquainted 
with the first principles of law. 

It is a common error to confound edtacation with mere 
instruction ; an error so common, indeed, that many wri- 
ters on the subject use the words as nearly, if not entirely, 
synonymous. Instruction, however, comprehends but a 
very small part of the general idea of education. Edu- 
cation includes all the extraneous influences which com- 
bine to the formation of intellectual and moral character ; 
while instruction is limited to that which is directly com- 
municated from one mind to another. '^Education and 
instruction (says Hooker) are the means, the one by use, 
the other by precept, to make our natural faculty of rea- 
son both the better and the sooner to judge rightly be- 
tween truth and error, good and evil." A man may 
become well educated, though but poorly instructed, as 
was the case with Pascal and Franklin, and many others 
equally illustrious ; but if a man is well instructed, he 
cannot, without some great fault of his own, fail to ac- 
quire a good education. Instruction is mostly the work 
of others ; education depends mainly on the use which 
we ourselves make of the circumstances by which we are 
surrounded. The mischiefs of defective instruction may 
often be repaired by our own subsequent efforts ; but a 
gap left down in the line of our education is not so easily 
put up, after the opportunity has once passed by. 

5. The art of teaching. 

The art of teaching, it is true, is not a science, and 
cannot be learned by theoretic study alone, without prac- 
tice. The model-school is appropriately the place for the 
acquisition of this art by actual practice ; but, Hke all the 
rational arts, it rests on scientific principles. The theo- 
retical instruction, therefore, in this branch, will be limited 
mainly to a developement of the principles on which it is 
founded ; while the application of those principles will be 
illustrated, and the art of teaching acquired, by instructing 
in the model-school under the care of the professors, and 
subject to their direction and remarks. The professor 
assigns to the pupil his class in the model-school, he ob- 



100 NORMAL SCHOOLS AND 

serves his manner of teaching, and notices its excellences 
and defects ; and after the class is dismissed, and the 
student is with him alone, or in company only with his 
fellow-students, he commends what he did well, shows him 
how he might have made the imperfect better, and the 
erroneous correct, pointing cut, as he proceeds, the ap- 
plication of theoretic principles to practice, that the les- 
sons in the model-school may be really an illustration of 
all that has been taught in the Teachers' Seminary. 

6. The art of governing children, with special refer- 
ence to the imparting and keeping alive of a feeling of 
love for children. 

Children can be properly governed only by affection; 
and affection, rightly directed, is all-powerful for this pur- 
pose. A school governed without love is a gloomy, mind- 
killing place ; it is like a nursery of tender blossoms filled 
with an atmosphere of frost and ice. Affection is the 
natural magnet of the mind in childhood ; the child's mind 
is fitted by its Creator to be moved by a mother's love ; 
and cold indifference or stern lovelessness repels and 
freezes it. In governing children there is no substitute 
for affection, and God never intended there should be 
any. 

General rules can be given for the government of a 
school ; the results of experience can be treasured up, 
systematized, and imparted ; the candidate for the teach- 
er's office can be exercised to close observation, patience, 
and self-control ; and all these are essential branches of 
instruction in. the art of governing. Still, if there be no 
feeling of love for children, all this will not make a good 
school-governor. There is great natural diversity in in- 
dividuals in regard to this, as in all other affections ; yet 
every one whom God has fitted to be a parent has the 
elements of this affection, and these elements are suscep- 
tible of developement and improvement. 

7. History of education, including an accurate outline 
of the educational systems of different ages and nations ; 
the circumstances which gave rise to them ; the principles 
on which they were founded ; the ends which they aimed 
to accomplish ; their successes and failures, their perma- 



101 

nency and changes ; how far they influenced individual 
and national character ; how far any of them might have 
originated in premeditated plan on the part of their found- 
ers ; whether they secured the intelligence, virtue, and hap- 
piness of the people, or otherwise, with the causes, &c. 

To insure success in any pursuit, the experience of 
our predecessors is justly considered a valuable, and gen- 
erally an indispensable aid. What should we think of 
one who claimed to be a profound politician whife ignorant 
of the history of political science ; w^hile unacquainted 
with the origin of governments, the causes which have 
modified their forms and influences, the changes which 
have taken place in them, the difl^erent effects produced 
by various systems under diver&e influences, and of the 
thousand combinations in which the past treasures wisdom 
for the future ? What should we think of the lawyer 
who knew nothing of the history of law ? or of the as- 
tronomer, ignorant of the history of astronomy ? In every 
science and every art we recognise the value of its appro- 
priate history ; and there is not a single circumstance that 
gives value to such history, which does not apply, in all 
its force, to the history of education. Yet, strange to 
say, the history of education is entirely neglected among 
us ; there is not a work devoted to the subject in the 
English language ; and very few, indeed, which contain 
even notices or hints to guide one's inquiries on this deep- 
ly-interesting theme. I wish some of those writers who 
complain that education is a hackneyed subject, a subject 
so often and so much discussed that nothing new remains 
to be said upon it, would turn their inquiries in this direc- 
tion, and I think they will find much, and that too of the 
highest utility, which will be entirely new to the greater 
part even of the reading population. 

Man has been an educator ever since he became civil- 
ized. A great variety of systems of public instruction have 
been adopted and sustained by law, which have produced 
powerful and enduring influences ; and are we to set sail 
on this boundless ocean entirely ignorant of the courses, 
and soundings, and discoveries of our predecessors ? 

The Hebrew nation, in its very origin, was subjected 
9* 



102 NORMAL SCHOOLS AND 

to a premeditated and thorouglily-systematized course of 
national instruction, which produced the most wonderful 
influence, and laid the foundation for that peculiar hardi- 
hood' and determinateness of character, which have made 
them the astonishment of all ages, a miracle among na- 
tions. A full developement of this system, and a careful 
illustration of the particulars which gave it its pecuhar 
strength, and of the circumstances which perverted it from 
good to evil, which turned strength into the force of hate, 
and perseverance into obstinacy, would be a most valua- 
ble contribution to the science of general education. The 
ancient Persians and Hindoos had ingenious and thorough- 
ly-digested systems of public instruction, entirely diverse 
from each other, yet each wonderfully efScacious in its 
own peculiar way. The Greeks were a busily educating 
people, and great varieties of systems sprung up in their- 
difFerent States and under their different masters, all of 
them ingenious, most of them effective, and some of them 
characterized by the highest excellences. Systems which 
we cannot and ought not imitate, may be highly useful as 
warnings, and to prevent our trying experiments which 
have been often tried before, and failed to be useful. The 
Chinese, for example, have had for ages a system which is 
peculiarly and strictly national ; its object has always been 
to make them Chinese ^ and nothing else ; it has fully an- 
swered the purpose intended ; and what has been the 
result ?* A nation of machines, a people of patterns, 
made to order ; a set of men and women wound up like 
clocks, to go in a certain way, and for a certain time, with 
minds wonderfully nice and exact in certain little things ; 
but as stiff, as unsusceptible of expansion, as incapable of 
originating thought, or deviating from the beaten track, as 
one of their own graven images is of navigating a ship. In 
short, they are very much such a people as the Americans 
might become in a few centuries, if some amiable enthu- 
siasts could succeed in establishing what they are pleased 
to denominate a system exclusively American. Education, 
to be useful, must be expansive, must be universal ; the 

* See Note A, at the close of this Article. 



teachers' seminaries. 103 

mind must not be trained to run in one narrow channel ; 
it must understand that human beings have thought, and 
felt, and acted, in other countries than its own ; that the 
results of preceding efforts have their value, and that all 
light is not confined to its own little Goshen. 

When a science has become fixed as to its principles, 
when its facts are ascertained and well settled, then its 
history is generally written. Why, then, have we no his- 
tory of education in our language ? Simply because the 
science of education, with us, is yet in its infancy ; be- 
cause, so far from being a hackneyed or an exhausted 
subject, on which nothing new remains to be said, its 
fundamental principles are not yet so ascertained as to 
become the basis of a fixed science. It cannot be pre- 
tended that there are no materials for the composition of 
such a history. We are not destitute of information 
respecting the educational systems of the most ancient 
nations, as the Chaldeans, iVssyrians, Egyptians, and 
Carthaginians ; and in respect to the Hindoos, tlie Per- 
sians, the Greeks, the Romans, the Chinese, the modern 
Europeans, the materials for their educational history arc 
nearly as ample as those for their civil history ; and the 
former is quite as important to the educator as the latter 
is to the civilian. The brief and imperfect, but highly- 
interesting sketches, given by Sharon Turner in his His- 
tory of England, afford sufficient proof of my assertion ; 
and they are to a full history of English education, as the 
first streaks of dawn to the risen sun. Should Teachers' 
Seminaries do nothing else than excite a taste and afford 
the materials for the successful pursuit of this branch of 
study only, they would more than repay all the cost of 
their establishment and maintenance. Systems of educa- 
tion which formed and trained such minds as arose in 
Egypt, in Judea, in Greece, systems under whose in- 
fluence such men as Moses and Isaiah, Solon, and 
Plato, and Paul, received those first impressions which 
had such commanding power over their mighty intellects, 
may afford to us many valuable suggestions. The sev- 
eral topics to which I have above alluded, as particu- 
larly worthy of notice in a history of those systems, 



104 NORMAL SCHOOLS AND 

are too obviously important to require a separate illus- 
tration. 

8. The rules of health and the laws of physical devel- 
opement. 

The care of the body while we are in this world is not 
less important than the culture of the mind ; for, as a 
general fact, no mind can work vigorously in a feeble and 
comfortless body ; and when the forecastle of a vessel 
sinks, the cabin must soon follow. The educating period 
of youth is the time most critical to health ; and the pe- 
cuhar excitements and temptations of a course of study, 
add greatly to the natural dangers of the forming and 
developing season of hfe. Teachers, therefore, especial- 
ly, should understand the rules of health, and the laws of 
physical develop^ment ; and it is impossible that they 
should understand them, unless they devote some time to 
their study. What a ruinous waste of comfort, of 
strength, and of hfe, has there been in our educational 
establishments, in consequence of the ignorance and neg- 
lect of teachers on this point ! And how seldom is this 
important branch of study ever thought of as a necessary 
qualification for the office of teacher ^ 

As it is a most sacred duty of the teacher to preserve 
uninjured the powers of the mind, and keep them in a 
healthful condition, so it is no less his duty to take the 
same care of the physical powers. The body should 
not only be kept in health, but its powers should be devel- 
oped and improved with as much care as is devoted to 
the improvement of the mind, that all the capabilities of 
the man may be brought out and fitted for active duty. 
But can one know how to do this if he never learns ? 
And will he be likely to learn, unless he has opportunity 
of learning ? It is generally regarded as the province of 
teachers to finish out and improve on Nature's plan ; but 
if they can all be brought to understand their profession 
so well as not to mar and spoil what Nature made right, 
it will be a great improvement on the present condition 
of education in the world.* 

* A complete History of Education, constructed on the principles 
sketched above, will soon be put to press by the publishers of this book. 



teachers' seminaries. 105 

9. Dlgaitj aad importance of the teacher's office. 
Self-respect, and a coiiscioiisness of doing well, are 

essential to comfort and success in any honorable calling ; 
especially in one subject to so many external depressions, 
one so little esteemed and so poorly rewarded by the 
world at large, as that of the teacher. No station of so 
great importance has probably ever been so shghtly esti- 
mated ; and the fault has been partly in the members of 
the profession itself. They have not estimated their offi- 
cial importance sufficiently high ; they have given a tacit 
assent to the superficial judgement of the world ; they 
have hung loosely on the profession, and too often aban- 
doned it the first opportunity. They ought early to un- 
derstand that their profession demands the strongest efforts 
of their w^hole lives ; that no employment can be more 
intimately connected with the progress and general w^elfare 
of society ; that the best hopes and tenderest wishes of 
parents and of nations depend on their skill and fidelity ; 
and that an incompetent or unworthy discharge of the 
duties of their office brings the community into the condi- 
tion of an embattled host when the standard-bearer faileth. 
If teachers themselves generally had a clear and definite 
conception of the immensely-responsible place they occu- 
py ; if they were skilled in the art of laying these con- 
ceptions vividly before the minds of the people among 
whom they labor, it would produce a great influence on 
the profession itself, by bringing it under the pressure of 
a mightier motive, and cause all classes of people more 
clearly to understand the inestimable v^^orth of the good 
teacher, -and make them more willing to honor and reward 
him. And this, too, would be the surest method of rid- 
ding the profession of such incumbents as are a disgrace 
to it, and an obstacle to its elevation and improvement. 
Juhus Cesar was the first of the Romans who honored 
school-teachers by raising them to the rank of Roman 
citizens, and in no act of his life did he more clearly 
manifest that pecuhar sagacity for which he was distin- 
guished. 

10. Special religious obligations of teachers in respect 
to benevolent devotedness to the intellectual and moral 



106 NORMAL SCHOOLS AND 

welfare of society, habits of entire self-control, purity of 
mind, elevation of character, &c. 

The duties of the teacher are scarcely less sacred or less 
dehcate than those of the minister of religion. In several 
important respects he stands in a similar relation to society; 
and his motives and encouragements to effort must, to a 
considerable extent, be of the same class. It is not to be 
expected that teaching will ever become generally a lucra- 
tive profession, or that many will enter it for mere love of 
money, or that, if any should enter it from such a motive, 
they would ever be very useful in it. All teachers ought 
to have a comfortable support, and a competency for the 
time of sickness and old age ; but what ought to be and 
what is ^ in such a world as this, are often very different 
things. If a competency is gained by teaching, very few 
will ever expect to grow rich by it. Higher motives 
than the love of wealth must actuate the teacher in the 
choice of his profession, and animate him in the perform- 
ance of its laborious duties. Such motives as the love 
of doing good, and peculiar affection for children, do ex- 
ist in many minds, notwithstanding the general selfishness 
of the world ; and these emotions, by a proper kind of 
culture, are susceptible of increase, till they become the 
predominant and leading desires. The teacher who has 
little benevolence, and little love for children, must be a 
miserable being, as well as a very poor teacher ; but one 
who has these propensities strongly developed, and is not 
ambitious of distinction in the world of vanity and noise, 
but seeks his happiness in doing good, is among the hap- 
piest of men ; and some of the most remarkable instances 
of healthy and cheerful old age are found among school- 
teachers. As examples, I would mention old Ezekiel 
Cheever, who taught school in New England for seventy- 
one years without interruption, and died in Boston in the 
year 1708, at the advanced age of ninety-three ; or to 
Dr. G. F. Dinter, now living at Konigsberg in Prussia, 
in the eightieth year of his age. Indeed, the ingenious 
author of Hermippus Redivivus affirms, that the breath 
of beloved children preserves the benevolent schoolmas- 
ter's health, as salt keeps flesh from putrefaction. In 



teachers' seminaries. 107 

Prussia, school-teachers generally enter on their profession 
at the age of twenty-two or twenty-five, and the average 
term of service among the forty thousand teachers there 
employed is over thirty years, making the average duration 
of a teacher's life there nearly sixty years ; a greater lon- 
gevity than can be found in any profession in the United 
States. Many teachers continue in the active discharge 
of their official duties more than fifty years ; and the fifti- 
eth anniversary of their induction to office is celebrated 
by a festival, and honored by a present from government. 

The other qualities mentioned, self-control, purity of 
mind, elevation of character, are so obviously essential to 
a teacher's usefulness, that they require no comment. 
We need only remark, that these are moral qualities, and 
can be cultivated only by moral means ; that they are 
religious qualities, and must be excited and kept alive by 
religious motives. Will any one here raise the cry, 
Sectarianism^ Church and State ? I pity the poor bigot, 
or the narrow-souled unbeliever, who can form no idea 
of religious principle, except as a sectarian thing ; who 
is himself so utterly unsusceptible of ennobling emotions, 
that he cannot even conceive it possible that any man 
should have a principle of virtue and piety superior to all 
external forms, and untrammelled by metaphysical sys- 
tems. From the aid of such men, we have nothing to 
hope in the cause of sound education ; and their hostility 
we may as well encounter in one form as another, pro- 
vided we make sure of the ground on which we stand, 
and hold up the right principles in the right shape. 

11. The influence which the school should exert on 
civilization and the progress of society. 

It requires no great sagacity to perceive, that the school 
is one of the most important parts of the social machine, 
especially in modern times, when it is fast acquiring for 
itself the influence which was wielded by the pulpit some 
two centuries ago, and which, at a more recent period, 
has been obtained by the periodical press. As the com- 
munity becomes separated into sects, which bigotry and 
intolerance force into subdivisions still more minute, the 
influence of the pulpit is gradually circumscribed ; but no 



108 FORMAL SCHOOLS AND 

such causes limit the influence of the school. Teachers 
need only understand the position they occupy, and act 
in concert, to make the school the most effective element 
of modern civilization, not excepting even the periodical 
press. A source of influence so immense, and which 
draws so deeply on the destinies of man, ought to be 
thoroughly investigated and considered, especially by 
those who make teaching their profession. Yet I know 
not, in the whole compass of English hterature, a single 
work on the subject, notv/ithstanding that education is so 
worn-out a theme, that nobody can say any thing new 
upon it. 

12. The elements of Latin, together whli the German, 
French, and Spanish languages. 

The languages of Europe have received most of their 
refinement and their science through the medium of the 
Latin ; and so largely are they indebted to this tongue, 
that the elements of it are necessary as a foundation for 
the study of the modern languages. That the German 
should be understood by teachers, especially in Pennsyl- 
vania, Ohio, and the Western States generally, is obvi- 
ous from the fact, that more than half the school districts 
contain German parents and children, who are best ap- 
proached through the medium of their ow^n tongue ; and 
the rich abundance and variety of educational literature in 
this language, greater, I venture to say, than in all other 
languages together, render it an acquisition of the high- 
est importance to every teacher. Li the present state of 
the commercial world one cannot be said to have acquired 
a business education without a knowledge of French : 
while our intimate relations with Mexico and South 
America render the Spanish valuable to us, and indeed, 
in the Western country, almost indispensable. The men- 
tal disciphne which the study of these languages gives is 
of the most valuable kind, and the collateral information 
acquired while learning them is highly useful. Though a 
foreign tongue is a difficult acquisition for an adult, it is 
very easy for a child. In the Rhine provinces of Ger- 
many, almost every child learns, without effort, both Ger- 
man and French, and, in the commercial cities, English 



teachers' seminaries. 109 

also ; and the unschooled children of the Levant often 
learn four or five different languages merely by the ear. 
I do not suppose that the modern languages will soon be- 
come a regular branch of study in all our common schools ; 
still, many, who depend on those schools for their edu- 
cation, desire to study one or more of them, and they 
ought to have the opportunity ; and if we would make 
our common schools our best schools, as they surely ought 
to be, the teachers must be capable of giving instruction in 
some of these languages. 

I have thus endeavored to give a brief view of the 
course of study which should be pursued in a Teachers' 
Seminary, and this, I suppose, in itself, affords a strong 
and complete argument to estabhsh the necessity of such 
an institution. A few general considerations in favor of 
this object will now be adduced. 

1 . The necessity of specific provision for the education 
of teachers is proved by the analogy of all other profes- 
sions and pursuits. 

To every sort of business in which men engage, some 
previous discipline is considered necessary ; and this idea, 
confirmed by all experience, proceeds on the universal 
and very correct assumption, that the human mind knows 
nothing of business by intuition, and that miraculous in- 
spiration is not to be expected. A man is not thought 
capable of shoeing a horse, or making a hat, without serv- 
ing an apprenticeship at the business. Why then should 
the task of the schoolmaster, the most difficult and delicate 
of all, the management of the human mind, that most in- 
tricate and complex of machines, be left to mere intuition, 
be supposed to require no previous training ? That the 
profession of school-teacher should so long be kept so 
low in the scale of professions, that it should even now 
be so generally regarded as a pursuit which needs, and 
can reward, neither time nor pains spent in preparation 
for its important duties, is a plain proof and example of 
the extreme slowness of the human race to perfect the 
most important parts of the social system. 

2. A well-endowed, competent, and central institution, 

10 



110 NORMAL SCHOOLS AND 

in a State, for the education of teachers, would give, in 
that State, oneness, dignity, and influence to the profession. 

It would be a point of union that would hold the pro- 
fession together, and promote that harmony and co-opera- 
tion so essential to success. Teachers have been isolated 
and scattered, without a rallying-point or rendezvous ; and 
the wonderful influence which has been exerted by the 
Western college of teachers, (and other similar institutions 
in the Eastern States,) the whole secret of which is, that 
it affords a central point around which teachers may rally, 
is but a faint shadow of what might be accomplished by a 
well-endowed and ably-manned seminary. Let there be 
some nucleus around which the strength of the profession 
may gather, and the community will soon feel its impor- 
tance, and give it its due honor. 

This object cannot be accomplished by small institu- 
tions scattered through the State, nor by erecting teachers' 
departments in existing institutions. The aggregate ex- 
pense of such an arrangement would be quite as great as 
that of endowing one good institution ; and without such 
an institution it would, after all, accomphsh but very little. 
It would be like distributing the waters of the canal to 
every httle village in the State, instead of having them run 
in one broad and deep channel, suitable for navigation. 

3. Such an institution would serve as a standard and 
model of education throughout the community. 

The only reason why people are satisfied with an infe- 
rior system of common-school instruction is, that they 
have no experience of a better. No community ever 
goes voluntarily from a better to a worse, but the tendency 
and the efl:brt generally are to rise in excellence. All our 
ideas of excellence, however, are comparative, and there 
will be little prospect of advancement unless we have a 
standard of comparison higher than any thing to which we 
have already attained. 

A well-managed institution at the seat of government, 
which should imbody all real improvements, and hold up 
the highest standard of present attainment, being visited 
by the executive officers, the legislators, the judges, the 
members of the bar, and other enlightened and influential 



teachers' seminaries. Ill 

men, who annually resort to the capital from every part 
of the State, would present a pattern to every school dis- 
trict, and excite emulation in every neighborhood. As 
an example of the rapidity with which improvements are 
taken, provided only there are appropriate channels for 
them to flow in, I may mention the practice of singing in 
schools, so recently introduced, and now so generally 
approved. 

4. Such an institution would produce concentration of 
effort ; its action would possess the vigor which strong 
sympathies impart ; and it would tend to a desirable uni- 
formity in books and modes of teaching. 

I do not suppose that absolute perfection will ever be 
attained in the art of teaching ; and while absolute perfec- 
tion is not reached, it is certain there ought not to be entire 
uniformity in books and modes of teaching. But in this, 
as in all other human arts, there maybe constant approx- 
imation towards the perfect ; and this progress must be 
greatly accelerated by the concentration of effort, and the 
powerful sympathetic action of mind on mind, collected 
in one institution, and determined, as it were, to one focus. 
The action of such an institution would obviate the prin- 
cipal evils, now so strongly felt, arising from the diversity 
of books and methods ; it would produce as much uni- 
formity as would be desirable in the existing stage of im- 
provement; and the more advanced the progress, the 
greater would be the uniformity. 

5. AH experience (experience which we generally ap- 
peal to as the safest guide in all practical matters) has 
decided in favor of institutions sustained by government 
for the education of teachers. 

No country has ever yet obtained a sufficient number 
of well-qualified teachers in any other way ; while every 
government which has adopted this method, and vigorous- 
ly pursued it, either has already gained the object, or is 
in the fair way of gaining it, however unpromising the 
beginnings might have been. No country has ever been 
so well supphed with competent teachers as Prussia at 
the present moment, and yet, thirty years ago, the mass 
of school-teachers there was probably below the present 



U2 NORMAL SCHOOLS AND 

average standard of New England and Ohio.; Dinter 
gives several examples of ignorance and incapacity during 
the first years of his official labor in East Prussia, which 
we should scarcely expect to find any where in the United 
States ; and the testimony of Dr. Julius before the Brit- 
ish House of Commons, which was published in connex- 
ion with my last report to the Legislature of Ohio, gives 
a similar view of the miserable condition of the Prussian 
schools at that time. 

Now, what has been the great means of effecting so de- 
sirable an object in Prussia ? Obviously, and by universal 
acknowledgement, the establishment of seminaries for the 
education of teachers.* ./The experiment was commenced 
by placing one in each of the ten provinces into which 
the kingdom is divided ; (equivalent to having one in each 
of the several States of this Union ;) and as their utility 
was tested, their number was increased ; till now there 
are more than forty for a population of fourteen millions. 
Wirtemberg, Bavaria, Austria, Russia, Holland, France, 
and- all other countries which desire to obtain a sufficient 
number of well-qualified teachers, find it necessary to fol- 
low this example ; and I do not believe the United States 
are an exception to so general a rule. Indeed, such in- 
stitutions must be even more necessary for us than for 
them, since, from the crowded state of the professions in 
old countries, there is much greater competition for the 
appointment of schoolmaster there than here. 

It now only remains that I state a few of the more prom- 
inent objections which are sometimes made to these insti- 
tutions, and endeavor to answer them. 

1. " Such institutions are unnecessary. We have had 
good teachers without them, and may have good teachers 
still." 

This is the old stereotyped objection against every 
attempt at improvement in every age. When the bold 
experiment was first made of nailing iron upon a horse's 
hoof, the objection was probably urged that horseshoes 
were entirely unnecessary. " We have had excellent 
horses without them, and shall probably continue to have 

* See Notes B and C, at the close of this Article. 



teachers' seminaries. 113 

them. The Greeks and Romans never used iron horse- 
shoes ; and did not they have the best of horses, which 
could travel thousands of miles, and bear on their backs 
the conquerors of the world ?" So, when chimneys and 
glass windows were first introduced, the same objection 
would still hold good. ''We have had very comforta- 
ble houses without these expensive additions. Our fa- 
thers never had them, and why should we ?" And at this 
day, if we were to attempt, in certain parts of the Scottish 
Highlands, to introduce the practice of wearing panta- 
loons, we should probably be met with the same objec- 
tion. " We have had very good men without pantaloons, 
and no doubt we shall continue to have them." In fact, 
we seldom know the inconveniences of an old thing till we 
have taken a new and better one in its stead. It is scarce- 
ly a year since the New York and European sailing pack- 
ets were supposed to afford the very we plus ultra of a 
comfortable and speedy passage across the Atlantic ; but 
now, in comparison with the newly-estabhshed steam- 
packets, they are justly regarded as a slow, uncertain, 
and tedious mode of conveyance. The human race is 
progressive, and it often happens that the greatest conve- 
niences of one generation are reckoned among the clumsi- 
est waste lumber of the next. Compare the best printing- 
press at which Dr. Frankhn ever worked, with those 
splendid machines which now throw off their thousand 
sheets an hour ; and who will put these down by repeat- 
ing, that Dr. Franklin was a very good printer, and made 
very good books, and became quite rich without them ? 

I know that we have good teachers already ; and I 
honor the men who have made themselves good teachers, 
with so little encouragement, and so httle opportunity of 
study. But I also know that such teachers are very few, 
almost none, in comparison with the public wants ; and 
that a supply never can be expected without the increas- 
ed facilities which a good Teachers' Seminary would 
furnish. 

2. " Such an institution would be very expensive." 
True, it would cost more than it would to build a stable, 
or fence in a few acres of ground ; and in this view of the 
10* 



114 NORMAL SCHOOLS ANI> 

matter a canal is expensive, and so is a public road, and 
many other things which the public good requires, and 
the people are willing to pay for. The only questions 
worthy of answer are : Whether the expense be dispro- 
portionate to the object to be secured by it i and whether 
it be beyond the resources of the country ? To both these 
questions I unhesitatingly answer, No. The, object to be 
secured is one which would fully justify any amount of 
expense that might be laid out upon it ; and all that need 
be done might be done, and not a man in the State feel 
the poorer for it. We could not expect a perfect institu- 
tion at once. We must begin where we are, and go 
forward by degrees. A school sufficient for all present 
purposes might well be maintained for five thousand dol- 
lars a year ; and wha't is that for States with resources 
like most of the States of this Union, and for the sake of 
securing an object so great as the perfection of the school 
system ? If the kingdom of Prussia, with fourteen mil- 
lions of people, two thirds of whom are very poor, and the 
other third not very rich, can support /or^i/-^z(?o Teachers' 
Seminaries, surely such States as Ohio, and Pennsylvania, 
and Virginia, and others, with populations of more than a 
million, none of whom are very poor, and many fast grow- 
ing rich, can afford to support one. 

3. '' We cannot be certain that they who study in 
such institutions would devote themselves to the business 
of teaching." 

This objection applies with equal force to all profession- 
al institutions ; and if it is of any weight against a Teach- 
ers' Seminary, it is equally available against a medical 
school. The objection, however, has very little weight ; 
for after a man has prepared himself for a profession, he 
generally wishes to engage in it, if he is competent to 
discharge its duties ; and if he is not competent, the public 
are no losers by his withdrawal. 

But let it even be supposed that a Teachers' Seminary 
should be established on the plan above sketched out, and 
occasionally a man should go successfully through the pre- 
scribed course of study, and not engage in teaching ; are the 
public the losers by it .'* Is the man a worse member of 



115 

society after such a course of study, or a better ? Is he 
less interested in schools, or less able to perform the du- 
ties of a school officer, or less quahfied to give a useful 
direction to the system among the people, than he would 
have been without such a course of study ? Is he not 
manifestly able ta stand on higher ground in all these 
respects, than he otherwise could have done ? The ben- 
efit which the public would derive from such men out of the 
profession, (and such would be useful in every school dis- 
trict,) would amply remunerate all the expenses of the 
establishment. But such cases would be too few to avail 
much on either side of the argument; certainly, in any 
view of them, they can argue nothing against the establish- 
ment of Teachers' Seminaries. 

4. " Teachers educated in such an institution would 
exclude all others from the profession." 

Not unless the institution could furnish a supply for 
all the schools, and they were so decidedly superior that 
the people would prefer them to all others ; in which case 
certainly the best interests of education demand that the 
statement in the objection should be verified in fact. 
But the success of the institution will not be so great 
and all-absorbing as this. It will not be able at once to 
supply half the number of teachers needed, and all who are 
educated in it will not be superior to every one who has 
not enjoyed its advantages. There is great diversity of 
natural gifts ; and some, with very slender advantages, 
will be superior to others who have been in possession of 
every facility for acquisition. That such an institution 
will elevate the standard of qualification among teachers, 
and crowd out those who notoriously fall below this 
standard, is indeed true ; but this, so far from being an 
objection, is one of its highest recommendations. 

5. " One such institution cannot afford a sufficient sup- 
ply for all the schools." 

This is readily conceded ; but people generally admit 
that half a loaf is better than no bread, especially if they 
are hungry. If we have a thousand teachers, it is much 
better that three hundred of the number should be well 
qualified, than that all should be incompetent ; and five 



116 NORMAL SCHOOLS AND 

hundred would be still better than three hundred, and 
seven hundred better than either, and the whole thousand 
best of all. We must begin as well as we can, and go 
forward as fast as we are able ; and not be hke the poor 
fool who will not move at all, because the first step he takes 
from his own door will not land him at once in the place 
of his destination. The first step is a necessary prelimi- 
nary to the second, and the second to the third, and so 
on till all the steps are taken, and the journey completed. 
The educated teacher will exert a reforming influence 
on those who have not been so well prepared ; he will ele- 
vate and enlarge their views of the duties of the profession, 
and greatly assist them in their endeavors after a more 
perfect quahfication."^ He will also excite capable young 
men among his pupils to engage in the profession ; for 
one of the greatest excitements of the young to engage 
in any business, is to see a superior whom they respect 
in the successful prosecution of it. 

Every well-educated teacher does much towards quali- 
fying those who are already in the profession without 
sufficient preparation, and towards exciting others to en- 
gage in it ; and thus, though the institution cannot supply 
nearly teachers enough for all the schools, yet all the 
schools will be better taught in consequence of its influ- 
ence. Moreover, a State institution would be the parent 
of many others, which would gradually arise, as their ne- 
cessity would be appreciated from the perceived success 
of the first. 

6. " The wages of teachers are not sufiicient to induce 
teachers so well educated to engage in the profession." 

At present this is true ; for wages are generally grad- 
uated according to the aggregate merit of the profession, 
and this, hitherto, has not been very great. People will 
not pay high for a poor article ; and a disproportionate 
quantity of poor articles in market, which are offered 
cheap, will aflect the price of the good, with the general- 
ity of purchasers. But let the good be supplied in such 
quantities as to make the people acquainted with it, and 

* See Note D, at the close of this Article. 



teachers' SEMINARIES. 117 

it will soon drive out the bad, and command its own 
price. The establishment of a Teachers' Seminary 
will raise the wages of teachers, by increasing their quali- 
fications, and augmenting the real value of their services ; 
and people eventually will pay a suitable compensation 
for good teaching, with much less grudging than they have 
hitherto paid the cheap wages of poor teachers, which, 
after all, as has been well observed, is but " buying igno- 
rance at a dear rate."* . 

* The New England practice of having district schools taught by col- 
lege-students, during their winter vacation, has been of great and ac- 
knowledged utility both to the teachers and the schools. I have no desire 
to discourage this good old practice ; for I apprehend that our common 
district schools, for many years to come, will need the services of tem- 
porary teachers of this kind. It is to be wished, however, that our 
colleges would make some provision for the special instruction of such 
students as engage in teaching. It would not only make their teach- 
ing much more valuable, but would fit them also to become school- 
examiners and inspectors after they have left the vocation of school- 
master for some more lucrative employment. 



NOTES. 



(A.) 
CHINESE EDUCATION. 

There is a regular system of schools in China of two kinds, the 
people's schools, and schools for the nobles. The course commenceg 
when the child is five years old, and is continued very rigorously, with 
but few and short vacations, to the age of manhood. In the people's 
schools the course consists of four parts, each of which has its appropriate 
book. The first is called Pe-kia-sing, and contains the names of per- 
sons in one hundred families, which the children must commit to memory. 
The second is called Tsa-tse, and contains a variety of matters neces- 
sary to be known in the common business of life. The third is called 
Tsien-tse-ouen, a collection of one thousand alphabetical letters. The 
fourth is San-tse-king, a collection of verses of three syllables each, 
designed to teach the elements of Chinese morals and history. Such 
is the provision for the common people. 

For the nobles there is a great university at Pekin, the Koue-tze- 
kien, to which every mandarin is allowed to send one of his sons. 
The candidate for admission must go first to the governor of a city of 
the third rank for examination, and if approved, he receives the degree 
of Hien-ming. He then goes to the governor of a city of the first rank, 
and, if he maintains a good examination there, is admitted to the 
university. 

A mandarin is annually sent out from Pekin, to visit the higher insti- 
tutions in the larger cities, and to confer degrees on the pupils, accord- 
ing to their progress. A class of four hundred is selected, and passes 
through ten examinations. The fifteen who have acquitted themselves 
best in all these examinations, receive the degree of Sinoa-tsay, the 
most important privilege of which is, that they are no longer liable to 
be whipped with the bamboo. Rich men's sons, who cannot always 
obtain this degree by a successful passage through the ten examina- 
tions, can procure the equivalent degree of Kien-song by paying a 
stipulated sum into the pubhc treasury. Having "attained either of 
these lower degrees, the pupil, after three years, can offer himself at 
Pekin for the higher degree of Kin-jin, which must be obtained after 
rigorous examination. The successful applicants for this honor, after 
one year longer, can demand at Pekin an examination for the highest 



NOTES. 119 

academical degree, that of Tsin-tse. He who obtains this is congrat- 
ulated and feasted by his friends, he is regarded with veneration by the 
people, is eligible to the highest office in the state, and may be raised 
by the Emperor to the dignity of Han-lin. 

The Emperor himself is required to be a man of learning, and the 
care of his early education is committed to a special college of learn- 
ed men, called Tschea-sza-fu ; and he is regarded in law as the edu- 
cator and instructcr of his people, as well as their ruler. In each 
village there is a public hall, where the civil and military functionaries 
assemble on the first and fifteenth of every month, and a discourse is 
delivered to them on the Sacred Edict. This Sacred Edict contains, 
1. The principles of Khong-hi, an ancient emperor. 2. A commen- 
tary by his son Young-tching, who reigned about the year 1700 ; and, 
3. A paraphrase by Wang-yeou-po. It was translated into English by 
Rev, W. Milne, Protestant Missionary at Malacca, and printed in 
London in 1817. 

In the above brief sketch, it is plain that the Chinese have a great 
veneration for learning, and that the emoluments and honors of the 
empire are designed to be accessible to those only who have taken 
academical degrees. But the whole system is arranged to make them 
Chinese. It excludes every thing of foreign origin, it admits neither 
improvement nor variation, and the result is manifest in the character 
of the people. 

Some, however, of our modern improvements have long been 
known and practised in the Chinese schools. Such as the practice 
of the children reading and repeating together in choir, the art of 
mnemonics, and others of the like kind, — See Schwartz's Geschichte 
der Erziehung, vol. i. p. 68-75. 



(B.) 
PRUSSIAN SCHOOLS, A FEW YEARS AGO. 

The following questions and answers are from Dr. Julius's testi- 
mony, before the Committee of the British House of Commons, in 
1834, respecting the Prussian School System. 

*' Do you remember, from your own knowledge, what the character 
and attainments of the schoolmasters were previous to the year 1819 ?" 

" I do not recollect ; but I know they were very badly composed 
of non-commissioned officers, organists, and half-drunken people. It 
has not risen like a fountain at once. Since 1770, there has been 
much done in Prussia, and throughout Germany, for promoting a prop- 
er education of teachers, and by them of children." 

" In your own observation has there been any very marked improve- 
ment in the character and attainments of schoolmasters, owing to the 
pains taken to which you have referred ?" 

" A very decided improvement." 



120 NOTES. 

Dinter, in his autobiography, gives some surprising specimens of 
gross incapacity in teachers, even subsequent to 1819. The following 
anecdotes are from that interesting work, Dinters Leben von ihm selbst 
beschrieben. 

In the examination of a school in East Prussia, which was taught by 
a subaltern officer dismissed from the army, the teacher gave Dinter a 
specimen of his skill in the illustration of Scripture narrative. The 
passage was Luke vii., the miracle of raising the widow's son at Nain, 
" See, children, (says the teacher,) Nain was a great city, a beautiful 
city ; but even in such a great, beautiful city, there lived people who 
must die. They brought the dead youth out. See, children, it was 
the same then as it is now — dead people couldn't go alone — they had 
to be carried. He that was dead began to speak. This was a sure 
sign that he was alive again, for if he had continued dead he couldn't 
have spoken a word." 

In a letter to the King, a dismissed schoolmaster complained that the 
district was indebted to him 200705 dollars. Dinter supposed the man 
must be insane, and wrote to the physician of the place to inquire. 
The physician replied that the poor man was not insane, but only ig- 
norant of the numeration-table, writing 200 70 5 instead of 275. Din- 
ter subjoins, " By the help of God, the King, and good men, very 
much has now been done to make things better," 

In examining candidates for the school-teacher's office, Dinter asked 
one where the Kingdom of Prussia was situated. He replied, that he 
believed it was somewhere in the southern part of India. He asked 
another the cause of the ignis-fatuus, commonly called Jack-with- 
the-lantern. He said they were spectres made by the devil.. An- 
other being asked why he wished to become a school-teacher, replied, 
that he must get a living somehow. 

A military man of great influence once urged Dinter to recommend 
a disabled soldier, in whom he was interested, as a school-teacher. 
" I will do so," says Dinter, " if he sustains the requisite examination." 
" O," says the Colonel, " he doesn't know much about school-teach- 
ing, but he is a good, moral, steady man, and I hope you will recom- 
mend him to oblige me." D. — O yes. Colonel, to oblige you, if you in 
your turn will do me a favor. Col. — What is that ? D. — Get me 
appointed drum-major in your regiment. True, I can neither beat a 
drum, nor play a fife ; but I am a good, moral, steady man as ever 
lived. 

A rich landholder once said to him, "Why do you wish the peas- 
ant children to be educated ? it will only make them unruly and diso- 
bedient." Dinter replied, " If the masters are wise, and the laws 
good, the more intelligent the people, the better they will obey." 

Dinter complained that the military system of Prussia was a great 
hinderance to the schools. A nobleman replied that the young men 
enjoyed the protection of the government, and were thereby bound to 
defend it by arms. Dinter asked if every stick of timber in a house 
ought first to be used in a fire-engine, because the house was protected 
by the engine ? or whether it would be good policy to cut down all the 
trees of an orchard to build a fence with, to keep the hogs from eating 
the fruit ? 



NOTES. 121 



(C.) 

SCHOOL-COUNSELLOR DINTER. 

GtrsTAVTJs Frederick Dinter was born at a village near Leipsic, 
in 1760. He first distinguished himself as principal of a Teacher's 
Seminary in Saxony, whence he was invited by the Prussian govern- 
ment to the station of School-Counsellor for Eastern Prussia. He 
resides at Konigsberg, and about ninety days in the year he spends in vis- 
iting the schools of his province, and is incessantly employed nearly 
thirteen hours a day for the rest of his time, in the active duties of his 
office ; and that he may devote himself the more exclusively to his 
work, he lives unmarried. He complaihs that his laborious occupation 
prevents his writing as much as he wishes for the public, yet, in addi- 
tion to his official duties, he lectures several times a week, during 
term-time, in the University at Konigsberg, and always has in his house 
a number of indigent boys, whose education he superintends, and, 
though poor himself, gives them board and clothing. He has made it 
a rule to spend every Wednesday afternoon, and, if possible, one 
whole day in the week besides, in writing for the press ; and thus, by 
making the best use of every moment of time, though he was nearly 
forty years old before his career as an author commenced, he has con- 
trived to publish more than sixty original works, some of them extend- 
ing to several volumes, and all of them popular. Of one book, a 
school catechism, fifty thousand copies were sold previous to 1830; 
and of his large work, the School-Teacher's Bible, in 9 volumes Svc, 
thirty thousand copies were sold in less than ten years. 

He is often interrupted by persons who are attracted by his fame, 
or desire his advice ; and while conversing with his visiters, that no 
time may be lost, he employs himself in knitting ; and thus not only 
supplies himself with stockings and mittens, suited to that cold climate, 
but always has some to give away to indigent students and other poor 
people. His disinterestedness is quite equal to his activity, and of the 
income of his publications he devotes annually nearly five hundred 
dollars to benevolent purposes. Unweariedly industrious, and rigidly 
economical as he is, he lays up nothing for himself. He says, " I am 
one of those happy ones, who, when the question is put to them, * Lack 
ye any thing ?' (Luke xxii. 35,) can answer with joy, * Lord, nothing.' 
To have more than one can use is superfluity, and I do not see how 
this can make any one happy. People often laugh at me, because I 
will not incur the expense of drinking wine, and because I do not wear 
richer clothing, and live in a more costly style. Laugh away, good 
people ; the poor boys also, whose education I pay for, and for whom, 
besides, I can spare a few dollars for Christmas gifts and new-year's 
presents, they have their laugh too." 

Towards the close of his autobiography, he says respecting the King 



122 NOTES. 

of Prussia, " I live happily under Frederick William ; he has just 
given me one hundred and thirty thousand dollars to build churches 
with in destitute places ; he has established a new Teachers' Semina- 
ry for my poor Polanders, and he has so fulfilled my every wish for 
the good of posterity, that I can myself hope to live to see the time 
when there shall be no schoolmaster in Prussia more poorly paid than 
a common laborer. He has never hesitated, during the whole term of 
my office, to grant me any reasonable request for the helping forward 
of the school-system. God bless him. I am with all my heart a Prus- 
sian. And now, my friends, when ye hear that old Dinter is dead, 
say, ' May he rest in peace ; he was a laborious, good-hearted, reli- 
gious man ; he was a Christian.' " 

A few such men in the United States would effect a wonderful 
change in the general tone of our educational efforts. 



(D.) 
IMPROVEMENT OF SCHOOL-TEACHERS. 

At the commencement of the late school efforts in Prussia, for the 
benefit of teachers already in the profession who had not possessed the 
advantages of a regular training, it was the custom for them to assem- 
ble during the weeks of vacation in their schools, and, under the care 
of a competent teacher, go through a regular course of lessons for their 
improvement. Of the entire course a careful and minute journal was 
kept and transmitted to the government. The following is from the 
journal of a four weeks' course of this kind, which was heldatRegen- 
wald in 1821, under the charge of School-Counsellor Bernhardt. The 
King gave his special approbation of this journal, and caused a large 
number of copies to be printed and circulated throughout the kingdom. 
The Minister of Public Instruction expresses himself respecting it in the 
following terms : — 

" The view presented and acted upon by School-Counsellor Bern- 
hardt, that the important point is not the quantity and variety of knowl- 
edge communicated, but its solidity and accuracy ; and that the found- 
ation of all true culture consists in the education to piety, the fear of 
God, and Christian humility ; and, accordingly, that those dispositions, 
before all things else, must be awakened and confirmed in teachers, 
that thereby they may exercise love, long-suffering, and cheerfulness, 
in their difficult and laborious calling — these principles are the only 
correct ones, according to which the education of teachers everywhere, 
and in all cases, can and ought to be conducted, notwithstanding the 
regard which must be had to the peculiar circumstances and the intel- 
lectual condition of particular provinces and communities. The Min- 
istry hereby enjoin it anew upon the Regency, not only to make these 
principles their guide in their own labors in the common schools and 
Teachers' Seminaries, but also to commend and urge them in the most 



NOTES. 123 

emphatic manner on all teachers and pupils in their jurisdiction. That 
this will be faithfully done, the Ministry expect with so much the more 
confidence, because in this way alone can the supreme will of his 
Majesty the King, repeatedly and earnestly expressed, be fulfilled. 
Of the manner in which the Regency execute this order, the Ministry 
expect a Report, and only remark further, that as many copies of the 
journal as may be needed will be supplied." 

The strongly religious character of the instructions in the following 
journal will be noticed ; but will any Christian find fault with this 
characteristic, or with the King and Ministry for commenduig it ? 

The journal gives an account of the employment of every hour in 
the day, from half past six in the morning to a quarter before nine in 
the evening. Instead of making extracts from different parts of it, I 
here present the entire journal for the last week of the course, that the 
reader may have the better opportunity of forming his own judgement 
on the real merits of the system. 

FOURTH WEEK. 

Monday, Oct. 22. A. M. 6^-7. Meditation. Teachers and pa- 
rents, forget not that your children are men, and that, as such, they 
have the ability to become reasonable. God will have all men to come 
to the knowledge of the truth. As men^ our children have the drgnity 
of men, and a right to life, cultivation, honor, and truth. This is^ 
holy, inalienable right, that is, no man can divest himself of it without 
ceasing to be a man. 7-8^. Bible instruction, Reading the Bible, 
and verbal analysis of what is read, Jesus in the wilderness, 9-12. 
Writing, Exercise in small letters. P. M. 2-5. Writing as before. 
5^-7. Singing. 8-8|. Meditation. Our schools should be Christian 
schools for Christian children, and Jesus Christ should be daily the 
chief teacher. One thing is needful, Jesus Christ, the same yester- 
day, to-day, and for ever. The great end of our schools, therefore, is 
the instruction of children in Christianity ; or the knowledge of heav- 
enly truths in hope of eternal life ; and to answer the question, What 
must I do to be saved ? Our children, as they grow up, must be able 
to say, from the conviction of their hearts. We know and are sure that 
thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God, Beloved teachers, 
teach no Christianity without Christ, and know that there cannot be a 
living faith without knowledge and love. 

Tuesday, Oct. 23, A, M. 6-7, Meditation. Christian schools are 
the gardens of God's spirit, and the plantations of humanity, and, there- 
fore, holy places. How dreadful is this place ! This is none other 
than the house of God. Teachers, venerate your schools — regard the 
sacred as sacred. 7—8^. Bible instruction. Reading of the Bible and 
verbal analysis of what is read. Luke xv, 1-10, 8^-9, Catechism. 
Repeating the second article with proper emphasis, and the necessary 
explanation of terms. 10-12. Writing. Exercise in German capitals, 
with the writing of syllables and words. P, M, 1-4, General repeti- 
tion of the instructions for school-teachers given during the month, 
4—5. Brief instruction respecting school discipline and school laws. 
5-7. Singing. 8-8^. Meditation. Teachers, you should make your 



124 NOTES. 

school a house of prayer, not a den of murderers. Thou shalt not 
kill — that is, thou shalt do no injury to the souls of thy children. This 
you will do if you are an ungodly teacher, if you neglect your duty, 
if you keep no order or discipline in your school, if you instruct the 
children badly, or not at all, and set before them an injurious exam- 
ple. The children will be injured also by hurrying through the school- 
prayers, the texts, and catechism, and by all thoughtless reading and 
committing to memory. May God help you. 

Wednesday, Oct. 24^. 6-6|. Meditation. Dear teachers, you labor 
for the good of mankind and the kingdom of God ; be therefore God's 
instruments and co-workers. Thy kingdom come. In all things ap- 
proving ourselves as the ministers of God. 6|-8J. Bible instruction 
as before, John iv. 1-15. 8^-9. Catechism. The correct and em- 
phatic reading and repeating of the first section, with brief explanation 
of terms. 10-12. Instruction in school discipline and school laws. 
P. M. 1-3. Instruction in the cultivation of fruit-trees. For instruc- 
tion in this branch of economy, the school is arranged in six divisions, 
each under the care of a teacher acquainted with the business, with 
whom they go into an orchard, and under his inspection perform all 
the necessary work. General principles and directions are written in 
a book, of which each student has a copy. More cooling is the shade, 
and more sweet the fruit, of the tree which thine own hands have 
planted and cherished. 3-5. Instruction in school discipline and 
school laws. 5^-^. Singing. 8-9. Meditation. The Christian school- 
teacher is also a good husband and father. Blameless, the husband 
of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behavior, apt to teach, not given 
to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre, patient, not a brawler, 
not covetous, one that ruleth well his own house, having his children 
in subjection, with all gravity. He that readeth, let him understand. 

Thursday, Oct. 25. A. M. 6-6^. Meditation. Dear teachers, do 
all in your power to live in harmony and peace with your districts, 
that you may be a helper of the parents in the bringing up of their 
children. Endeavor to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of 
peace. As much as in you lies, live peaceably with all men. 6|-9. 
Bible instruction as before, Luke vii. 11-17. Reading by sentences, 
by words, by syllables, by letters. Reading according to the sense, 
with questions as to the meaning. Understandest thou what thou 
readest ? 10-11. Instructions as to prayer in schools. Forms of 
prayer suitable for teachers and children are copied and committed to 
memory. Lord, teach us to pray. 11-12. Writing. Exercise in 
capitals and writing words. P. M. 2-3. Instruction respecting prayer 
in the family and in the school. Forms of prayer for morning and 
evening, and at the table, are copied, with instructions that school 
children should commit them to memory, that they may aid their pa- 
rents to an edifying performance of the duty of family worship ; that, 
as the school thus helps the family, so the family also may help the 
school. Use not vain repetitions. 3-5. Bible instruction. General 
views of the contents of the Bible, and how the teacher may commu- 
nicate, analyze, and explain them to his children, yearly, at the com- 
mencement of the winter and summer terms. 5^-7. Singing. 8-9. 
Meditation. Teachers, acquire the confidence and love of your dis- 



NOTES. 125 

tricts, but never forsake the direct path of duty. Fear God, do right, 
and be afraid of no man. The world, with its lusts, passeth away, 
but he that doeth the will of God shall abide for ever. 

Friday, Oct. 26. Meditation. Teachers, hearken to the preacher, 
and labor into his hands ; for he is placed over the church of God, 
who will have the school be an aid to the church. Remember them 
that labor among you, and are over you in the Lord, and esteem them 
highly in love for their works' sake. Neither is he that planteth any 
thing, nor he that watereth any thing, but God who giveththe increase. 
7-9. Bible instruction. Summary of the contents of the Bible, to be 
committed to memory by children from ten to fifteen years of age. 
10-12. Bible instruction. Brief statement of the contents of the his- 
torical books of the New Testament. P. M. 1-5. Bible instruction. 
Contents of the doctrinal and prophetical books of the New Testament. 
Selection of the passages of the New Testament proper to be read in 
a country school. A guide for teachers to the use of the Bible in 
schools. 5-7. Singing. 8-9. Meditation. Honor and love, as a 
good teacher, thy King and thy father-land ; and awake the same 
feelings and sentiments in the hearts of thy children. Fear God, hon^ 
or the King, seek the good of the country in which you dwell, for 
when it goes well with it, it goes well with thee. 

Saturdaij, Oct. 27. 6-6^. Meditation. By the life in the family, 
the school, and the church, our heavenly Father would educate us and 
our children for our earthly and heavenly home ; therefore parents, 
teachers, and preachers, should labor hand in hand. One soweth and 
another reapeth. I have laid the foundation, another buildeth thereon; 
and let every man take heed how he buildeth thereon. Means of 
education : 1. In the family — the parents, domestic life, habits : 2. In 
the school— the teacher, the instruction, the discipline : 3. In the 
church — the preaching, the word, the sacraments. 6^-9^. Bible in- 
struction. Rules which the teacher should observe in reading the 
Bible. In analyzing it. In respect to the contents of the Old Testa- 
ment books, and selections from them for reading, written instructions 
are given and copied, on account of the shortness of the time which is 
here given to this topic. 10-12. Bible instruction. General repeti- 
tion. P. M. 1-4. Bible instruction. General repetition. 4-5. Read- 
ing. Knowledge of the German language, with written exercises, 
7—10^. Review of the course of instruction and the journal, 10^-12, 
Meditation. The prayer of Jesus, (John xvii.,) with particular refer-* 
ence to our approaching separation. 

Sunday, Oct. 28. 6^-9. Morning prayer. Catechism. Close of 
the term. (In the open air on a hill at sunset) singing and prayer. 
Address by the head teacher. Subject. What our teacher would say 
to us when we sepai-ate from him. 1. What you have learned apply 
well, and follow it faithfully. If ye know these things, happy are ye 
if ye do them. 2. Learn to see more and more clearly that you know 
but little. We know in part. 3. Be continually learning, and never 
get weary. The man has never lived who has learned all that he 
might. 4. Be yourself what you would have your children become. 
Become as little children. 5. Let God's grace be your highest good, 
and let it strengthen you in the difficulties which you must encounter. 
11* 



126 NOTES. 

My grace is sufficient for thee — my strength is perfect in thy weak- 
ness. 6. Keep constantly in mind the Lord Jesus Christ. He has 
left us an example that we should follow his steps. Hymn — Lord 
Jesus Christ, hearken thou to us. Prayer. Benediction. 

Review of the hours spent in different studies during the four 
weeks. Arithmetic, sixty-seven ; writing, fifty-six ; Bible, twenty- 
five ; meditation, thirty-six ; other subjects, twenty-six ; singing, 
twenty-eight. Total, two hundred and thirty-eight. From nine to 
ten, in the morning, was generally spent in walking together, and one 
hour in the afternoon was sometimes spent in the same manner. 

Familiar lectures were given on the following topics : 1. Directions 
to teachers as to the knowledge and right use of the Bible in schools. 
2. Directions to teachers respecting instruction in writing. 3. Direc- 
tions for exercises in mental arithmetic. 4. Instructions respecting 
school discipline and school laws. 5. A collection of prayers for the 
school and family, with directions to teachers. 6. The German parts 
of speech, and how they may be best taught in a country school. 
7. The day-book. 

Printed books were the following : 1. Dinter's Arithmetic. 2. Din- 
ter on Guarding against Fires. 3. Brief Biography of Luther. 4. On 
the Cultivation of Fruit-Trees. 5. German Grammar. 6. Baumgar- 
ten's Letter- Writer for Country Schools. 7. Luther's Catechism. 

That which can be learned and practised in the short space of a few 
weeks, is only a little — a very little. But it is not of so much impor- 
tance that we have more knowledge than others ; but most depends 
on this, that I have the right disposition ; and that I thoroughly under- 
stand and faithfully follow out the little which I do know. 

God help me, that I may give all which I have to my school ; and 
that I, with my dear children, may above all things strive after that 
which is from above. Father in heaven, grant us strength and love 
for this. 



THE SCHOOL ADVERTISER NO. U. 

AUGUST, 1839. 



THE SCHOOL LIBRARY 



MARSH, CAPEN, LYON, AND WEBB, 

109, Washington Street, Boston, 



Are now publishing, under the sanction of the 
sachusetts board of education, a collection of ori- 
GINAL AND SELECTED WORKS, ENTITLED, ' ThE ScHOOL 

Library.' 

The Library will embrace two series of fifty volumes 
each ; the one to be in 18mo., averaging from 250 to 280 
pages per volume ; the other in 12mo., each volume con- 
taining from 350 to 400 pages. The former, or Juvenile 
iSeries, is intended for children of ten or twelve years of 
age and under ; the latter for individuals of that age, and 
uptvards, — in other words, for advanced scholars and their 
parents. 

The Library is to consist of reading, and not school^ 
class, or text books ; the design being to furnish youth with 
suitable works for perusal during their leisure hours ; works 
that will interest, as well as instruct them, and of such a 
character that they will turn to them with pleasure, when 
it is desirable to unbend from the studies of the school 
room. 

The plan will embrace every department of Science and 
Literature, preference being given to works relating to 
our own Country, and illustrative of the history, institutions, 
manners, customs, &c., of our own people. Being intended 
for the ivhole community, no work of a sectarian or de- 
nominational character in religion, or of a partisan char- 
acter in politics, will be admitted. 

The aim will be to clothe the subjects discussed, in a 
popular garb, that they may prove so attractive, as to lure 



the child onwards, fix his attention, and induce him, sub- 
sequently, to seek information from other and more re- 
condite works, which, if put into his hands at the onset, 
would alarm him, and induce a disgust for that which 
would appear dry and unintelligible, and of course, un- 
interesting. 

The intention is not to provide information for any one 
class, to the exclusion of others, but to disseminate knowl- 
edge among all classes. The Publishers wish the children 
of the Farmer, the Merchant, the Manufacturer, the Me- 
chanic, the Laborer, — all to profit by the lights of science 
and literature, that they may be rendered the more virtu- 
ous and happy, and become more useful to themselves, to 
one another, to the community, and mankind at large. 
*To accomplish this desirable end, the Library will em- 
brace so wide a range of subjects, that every child may 
find something which will prove useful and profitable to 
him, whatever his situation, circumstances, or pursuits, in 
afterlife may be. 

The project is one of great extent, and vast importance; 
and, if properly carried out, must become of inestimable 
value to the young. Whether the anticipations of the 
Publishers, with regard to it, will be verified, time must 
determine ; but from the intellectual and moral, theoretical 
and practical character of those who have engaged to aid 
in the undertaking, they have good grounds for presuming 
that much will be accomplished, and that by their united 
efforts many obstacles, now existing to the mental, moral, 
and physical improvement of youth, will be removed, or at 
least be rendered more easily surmountable. 

Among the individuals already engaged as writers for 
one or both Series, may be mentioned — the Hon. Judge 
Story, Jared Sparks, Esq., Washington Irving, Esq., Rev. 
Dr. Wayland, Professor Benjamin Silliman, Professor Den- 
nison Olmsted, Professor Alonzo Potter, Hon. Judge Buel, 
Dr. Jacob Bigelow, Dr. Robley Dunglison, Dr. Elisha 
Bartlett, Rev. Charles W. Upham, Rev. F. W. P. Green- 
wood, Rev. Royal Robbins, Rev. Warren Burton, Ar- 
thur J. Stansbury, Esq., E. C. Wines, Esq., Robert Ran- 
toul, Jr., Esq., Professor Tucker, and Professor Elton. 

Mrs. Sarah J. Hale, Mrs. E. F. Ellet, Mrs. Emma C. 
Embury, Mrs. A. H. Lincoln Phelps, Miss E. Robbins, 



3 

Miss E. P. Peabodj, Miss Mary E. Lee, Miss Caroline 
Sedgwick. 

No work will be admitted into the Library, unless it be 
approved by every member of the Board of Education ; 
which Board consists of the following individuals, viz.. 
His Excellency Edward Everett, Chairman, His Honor 
George Hull, Rev. Emerson Davis, Edmund Dwight, 
Esq., Rev. George Putnam, Robert Rantoul, Jr., Esq., 
Rev. Thomas Robbins, D. D., Jared Sparks, Esq., Hon. 
Charles Hudson, and Hon. George N. Briggs. 

The following works, have been printed, and constitute 
the first ten volumes of the 12mo. series, viz. 

LIFE OF COLUMBUS, by Washington Irving, a 
new edition, (revised by the author,) including a Visit to 
Palos, and other additions, a portrait of the Great Naviga- 
tor, a Map, and several illustrative engravings. 

PALEY'S NATURAL THEOLOGY, in two volumes, 
with selections from the Dissertations and Notes of Lord 
Brougham and Sir Charles Bell, illustrated by numer- 
ous wood cuts, and prefaced by a Life of the Author ; 
(with a portrait;) the whole being nev/ly arranged and 
adapted for The School Library, by Elisha Bartlett, 
M. D., Professor of the Theory and Practice of Physic and 
Pathological Anatomy in Dartmouth College. 

LIVES OF EMINENT INDIVIDUALS, CELEBRA- 
TED IN AMERICAN HISTORY, in three vols., with 
portraits of Robert Fulton, Sebastian Cabot, and Sir Henry 
Vane, and autographs of most of the individuals. 

Vol. I. WILL CONTAIN 

Life of Major-general John Stark, by His Excellency Edward Everett. 
" David Brainerd, by Rev. William B. O, Peabody. 

" Robert Fulton, by James Renwick, LL. J)., Professor of Natural Phi- 
losophy and Chemistry^ in Columbia College, New York City. 
" Captain John S.-hith, by George S. Hillard, Esq. 
Vol. II. will contain 

Life of Major-general Ethan Allen, by Jared Sparks, Professor of History 
in Harvard University. 
" Sebastian Cacot, by Charles Hay ward, Jr., Esq. 
" Henry Hudson, by Henry R. Cleveland, Esq. 

" Major-general Joseph Warren, by Alexander H. Everett, LL. D. 
" MfVjOR-GENERAL IsRAEL PuTNAM, by O. W. B. Pcabody, Esq. 
" David Ritteniiouse, by Professor James Renwick, L L. Di. 



Vol. III. WILL CONTAIX 

Life of William Pinkney, by Henry Wheaton, LL. D., Author of History of 
the Northmen. 
" Sir Henry Vane, by Rev. Charles W. Upliam. 
" MvjoR-GENERAL Antiioxy Wayne, by .John Armstrong, Esq. 
" William Ellery, by Edward T. Channing, Esq. 
" Major-general Richard Montgomery, by John Armstrong, Esq. 

THE SACRED PHILOSOPHY OF TPIE SEziSONS, 
illustrating The Perfections of God in the Phenomena of 
the Year. In 4 vols. By the Rev. Henry Duncan, D. D., 
of RiUhivell, Scotland; with important additions, and some 
modifications to adapt it to American readers, by the Rev. 
F. W. P. Greenwood, of Boston. 

The great value and interesting nature of these volumes, to every 
class of individuals, will be seen, at once, by a perusal of the following 
Table of Contents. The work contains a paper for every day in the year, 

VOL. I.— WINTER. 

1. SvsDXY.— Goodness of God to his Rational Creatures. The Character im- 
pressed on Nature — Compensation. Contrivance. 

COSMICAL arrangements. 

Globular Figure of the Earth. Circulation in the Atmosphere and Ocean. 
The Atmosphere. Ignis Fatuus. ii. Sunday. — General Aspect of Winter. 
Phosphorescence. Aurora Borealis. Meteoric Showers. Variety of Climates. 
Practical Eftect of the Commercial Spirit producfl by a Variety of Climates. 
Adaptation of Organized Existences to Seasons and Climates, iii. Sunday. — 
The Omnipresence of God. Adaptation of Organ ed Existences to the Tropical 
Regions. Adaptation of Organized Existences to lemperate and Polar Climates. 
The Balance Preserved in the Animal and Vegetable Creation. Night. — Its Al- 
ternation with Day. Sleep. Dreaming, iv. Sunday. — The World a State of 
Discipline. 

THE STARRY HEAVENS. 

General Remarks. Gravitation and Inertia. The Planetary System. The 
Sun as the Source of Light and Heat. Motions of the Planets. Resisting Me- 
dium. V. Sunday. — Divine and Human Knowledge compared. The Satellites, 
Relative Proportions of the Planetary System. Distance of the Fixed Stars. 
Immensity of the Universe. Nebulae. Binary Stars. 

THE MICROSCOPE. 

VI. Sunday. — Discoveries of the Telescope and Microscope compared. Won- 
ders of the Microscope. — Infusory Animalcules. 

HYBERNATION OF PLANTS. 

Plants and Animals compared. Adjustment of the Constitution of Plants to 
the Annual Cycle. Physiological Condition of Plants during Winter. 

HYBERNATION OF INSECTS. 

Instinct, vix. Sunday. — On Seeing God in his Works. Reason in the Lower 
Animals. Eggs. Various States. Bees. The Snail. The Beetle, viii. Sun- 
day. — Greatness of God even in the Smallest Things. 

MIGRATIONS OF BIRDS AND QUADRUPEDS DURING WINTER. 

Birds. Birds which partially migrate. Quadrupeds. 

Christmas-Day. No Season Unpleasant to the Cheerful Mind, ix. 
Sunday. — Proofs of Divine Benevolence in the Works of Creation. 



MIGRATION OF FISHES. 

The Sturgeon, the Herring, the Cod, &c. Cetaceous Animals. Migration from 
the Sea into Rivers. Migration of Eels. 
New-Year's-Day. 
Migration of the Land-Crab. x. Sunday.— JFzraier an Emblem of Death. 

HYBERNATION OF QUADRUPEDS. 

Clothing. Storing Instincts. Torpidity. 

HYBERNATION OF MAN. 

Privation stimulates his Faculties. Provisions for his Comfort. Adaptation 
of his Constitution to the Season, xi. Sunday. — The Unceasing and Universal 
Providence of God. 

INHABITANTS OF THE POLAR REGIONS. 

The Esquimaux. Food and Clothing. Dwellings and Fire. 

FROST. 

Provision for causing Ice to Float on the Surface. The Expansive and Non- 
conducting Power of Ice. Amusements connected with it. xii. Sunday. — 
Winter not Monotonous. — Boundless Variety of Nature. Effects of Frost in the 
Northern Regions. Agency of Frost in Mountainous Regions. Hoar Frost. — 
Foliations on Window-Glass, &c. Beneficent Contrivances relative to Snow. 
Sagacity and Fidelity of the Dog in Snow. 

GEOLOGY. 

Its Phenomena consistent with the Mosaic Account of the Creation, xiii. 
Sunday. — The Difficulty of Comprehending the Operations of Providence. Suc- 
cessive Periods of Deposit. Successive Periods of Organized Existences. State 
of the Antediluvian World. Indications of the Action of the Deluge at the Period 
assigned to it in Scripture. Cuvier's Calculation respecting the Deluge. Effects 
of the Deluge on the Present Surface of the Earth, xiv. Sunday. — The Deluge 
a Divine Judgement. 



VOL. II.— SPRING. 

COSMICAL ARRANGEMENTS. 

General Character of Spring in temperate Climates. Increasing Temperature 
of the Weather, and its Effects. Color and Figure of Bodies. Mountains. Rain. 
Springs, i. Sutsdxy.— Advantages of Vicissitude. Rivers. 

reproduction of VEGETABLES. 

Vegetable Soil. Vegetation. Preservation and Distribution of Seeds. Long 
Vitality of Seeds. Developement of Seeds and Plants, ii. Sunday. — Analogy 
of Nature. Tlie Vital Powers of Plants. Flowers.— Their Form, Color, and 
Fragrance. Their Organs of Reproduction, and their Secretion of Honey. The 
Violet. 

REPRODUCTION OF ANIMALS. 

The Animal Structure. — Cellular Texture — Membranes, Tendons, and Liga- 
ments. Secretion, Digestion, and the Circulation of the Blood, iii. Sunday. 

*'■ The Same Lord over AlV The Animal Structure . Gastric Juice. Muscular 
Power. Nature of the Proof of Creative Wisdom derived from the Animal Frame. 
The Lower Orders of Animals. The Higher Orders of Animals. 

INSTINCTS CONNECTED WITH THE REPRODUCTION OF ANIMALS. 

General Remarks. Parental Affection. Insects. — Their Eggs. iv. Sunday. 
—On the Uniformity or Sameness in the Natural and Moral fVorld. Insects. — 
Care of their Offspring, exemplified in Bees and Wasps. The Moth. The Bury- 
ing-Beetle. The Ant. Gall Flies. Deposition of Eggs in the Bodies of Animals, 
and in Insects' Nests. Birds.— Their Eggs. Prospective Contrivances, v. Sun- 
day. — On the Domestic Affections. Birds. — Relation of their Bodies to external 
Nature. Pairing. Nest-building. The Grossbeak. The Humming-bird. vi. 
Sunday. — Regeneration. Birds. — Nests of Swallows. Hatching of Eggs, and 
rearing the Brood. Quadrupeds.— -The Lion. The Rabbit. Instincts of the Young, 



Man.— Effects of protracted Childhood on the Individual. Effects of protracted 
Childhood on the Parents and on Society, vii. Sunday. — On Ckristian Love. 

AGRICULTURE. 

The Difference between the Operations of Reason and Instinct, as affording 
Arguments in Favor of the Divine Perfisctions. Origin of Agricultural Labor. 
Origin of Property in the Soil, and the Division of Ranks. Effects of Property 
in the Soil. Beneiits derived from the Principles which Stimulate Agricultural 
Improvement. The Blessings of Labor, viii. Sunday. — Spiritual Training by 
Affliction. Nature of Soils. Formation of Soils. Management of Soils.— Drain- 
ing. Irrigation. Blair-Drummond Moss. Products of the Soil. — Dissemination 
of Plants. IX. Sunday.— TAe Sower. Dissemination of Plants. — The Cocoa- 
Nut Tree. Mitigation of Seasons occasioned by Cultivation. The Labors of the 
Husbandman wisely distributed over the Year. The Corn Plants.— Their Mys- 
terious Origin. Their Distribution over the Globe. Wheat, x. Sunday.— 5a6- 
bath Morning. The Corn-Plants.— Barley, Oats, Rice, Maize, and Millet. 
Leguminous Plants. — Peas and Beans. Esculent Roots. — The Potato. Vegetable 
Substances used for Weaving. The Flax Plant, xi. Sunday.— rrue Science the 
Handmaid of Religion. Vegetable Substances used for Weaving. The Cotton 
Plant. Vegetable'Substances used for Cordage. — Hemp. Vegetable Substances 
used for Paper. 

ANNIVERSARY OF THE DEATH AND RESURRECTION OF CHRIST. 

The Sacrament of the Supper. The Crucifixion. The Grave, xii. Sdnday. 
— The Resurrection. 

Enjoyment equally Distribut3d. The Enjoyments of the Poor in 
Spring. The Woods. 

retrospective view of the argument. 

The Power and Intelligence of the Creator. The Goodness of the Creator. 
The Use and Deficiency of Natural Religion. 



VOL. III.— SUMMER. 

COSMICAL arrangements. 

I. Sunday. — Summer the Perfection of the Year. Increased Heat. Internal 
Heat of the Earth. Increased Light. Electricity. Clouds. Dew. ii. Sun- 
day. — Scriptural Allusions to the Dew. Adaptations of the Faculties of Living 
Beings to the Properties of Light and Air. 

vegetables. 

Growth of Vegetables. Principles on which Horticulture is founded. History 
of Horticulture. The Turnip. Brassica or Cabbage, iii. Sunday. — Spiritual 
Light. Various Garden Vegetables. Flowers — The Rose. Fruits. Ingrafting. 
TlieGooseberry and Currant. The Orchard, iv. Sunday. — Spiritual Soil. Pro- 
ductions of Warm Climates used for Human Food. — The Banana. The Date Palm. 
Trees used for other Purposes than Food. Vegetable Substances used in Tan- 
ning. Vegetable Fixed Oils. Vegetable Oils — Essential and Empyreumatic. 
Vegetable Tallow and Wax. v. Sunday. — Spiritual Culture. Vegetable Life 
in the Polar Regions. 

animals. 

Connexion between the Vegetable and Animal Kingdoms. The Sensorial Or- 
gans. Sensation and Perception. The Argonaut and Nautilus. The Coral In- 
eect. VI. Sunday. — The Invisible Architect. Insect Transformations — Cocoons 
— The Silk-Worm. Insects — Their Larva State. Their Pupa or Chrysalis State. 
Their Imago or Perfect State. The Building Spider. Spider's Webb. vii. Sun- 
day. — Spiritual Transformation. Inse'^Js — Legionary and Sanguine Ants. The 
Lion Ant — The Queen-Bee. Physiological Character of Vertebrated Animals. 
Reptiles— The Tortoise— The Serpent, viii. Sunday. — The Old Serpent. Rep- 
tiles — The Saurian Tribes. Birds— Their Relative Position. The Bill. Their 
Power of Flying. Their Pjwer of Vision. Their Voice. Their Selection of 
Food. IX. Sunday. — Thi: Ascension of Christ. Birds — Their Gregarious Habits. 
Domestic Fowls — The iJock, tlie Turkey, and the Peacock. The Goose and the 
Duck. Birds of Prey — The Vulture. The Eagle. Predaceous Animals— Their 



Offices in Nature, x. Sunday.— CAm? the Judge of the World. Quadrupeds — 
Tlieir Characteristics. Their Bodily Organs. The Bat. The Mouse. Ruminat- 
ing — The Goat and Sheep. Sheep Shearing, xi. Sunday. — Christ, the Good 
Shepherd. Quadrupeds— The Sliepherd's Dog. Ruminating — The Cow. Thick- 
skinned — The Hog. The Horse and Ass. The Elephant. Reflections on the 
Domestic Animals, xii. Sunday. — The Destruction of the World, and the 
Renovation of the Human Frame in a Future State. Fishes. Man — His Ex- 
ternal Structure. His Intellectual Powers. His Moral Powers. Physical Effects 
of Climate. Moral Effects of Climate, xm. Sunday. — The Confusion of 
Tongues. Man — Human Language. 
TIaymaking — Pleasures of Rural Scenery. 
The Variety, Beauty, and Utility of Organized Existences. 

retrospective view of the argument. 
Adaptation. Future Existence. Discipline. 
XIV. Sunday. — The Day of Pentecost — One Language. 



VOL. IV.— AUTUMN. 

PHENOMENA, PRODUCE, AND LABORS OF THE SEASON. 

General Character of Autumn. Autumn in the City. Famine in the beginning 
of Autumn. Autumnal Vegetation. Progress of Vegetation in the Corn Plants. 
Harvest, i. Sunday. Stability of Nature. Gleaning. The Harvest Moon. 
Harvest-Home. Storing of Corn. Birds. — Their State in Autumn. 

THE WOODS. 

Their Autumnal Appearance, ii. Sunday. — The Powers of the World to come. 
The Woods. Their Uses. Various Kinds and Adaptations of Timber. 
Origin of the Arts. — Food, Clothing, and Shelter. 

HUMAN FOOD. 

Its Principle. The Moral Operation of the Principle. Its Supply not inad- 
equate, in. Sunday. — Christians '■'^ Members one of another." Provision for 
the future. — Soil still uncultivated. Improved-Cultivation. Means now in Ex- 
istence. Vegetable and Animal Food. Fruits — Their Qualities. Drink, iv. 
Sv^-aw.— '■'The Bread of Life." Milk. Wine. Tea and Coffee. Sugar. The 
Pleasures connected with Food. Comparison between the Food of Savage and 
Civilized Man. v. Sunday. — " Give us this Day our daily Bread." Agriculture 
of the Greeks. — Their Harvest. Agriculture of the Romans. Their Harvest. 
Progress of British Agriculture. Modern Continental Agriculture. 

HUMAN CLOTHING. 

Its Principle. Its Primitive State, vi. Sunday. — The Emptiness of Human 
Attainments. Its Ancient History. Commercial History of the Raw Material. 
The Silk Manufacture.— Its Modern His tory . History of Mechanical Contrivances 
connected with it. Rearing of the Cocoons, &c. The Cotton Manufacture. — Its 
Foreign History, vii. Sunday. — The Intellectual and Moral Enjoyments of 
Heaven. The Cotton Manufacture — Its British History. Improvement of Ma- 
chinery. Its American History. — Introduction of Steam Power. The Woollen 
Manufacture.— Its History. The Art of Bleaching. The Art of Dyeing. — Its 
Origin and Ancient History, viii. Sunday.— TAe Social and Religious Enjoy- 
ments of Heaven. The Art of Dyeing. — Its Modern History. Its Chemical 
Principles. 

ARCHITECTURE. 

Its Principle. Its original State. — Materials employed. Tools employed. Its 
Modifications by the Influence of Habit and Religion, ix. Sunday. — The Chil- 
dren of the World wiser than the Children of Light. Architecture. — Ancient His- 
tory and Practice. — Egypt. — Thebes. The Pyramids. India. — Excavated Temples. 
Central Asia. — Tower of Babel, or Temple of Belus. Babylon. Nineveh. Petra. 
Greece, x. Shnday. — Divine Strength made perfect in Human Weakness. Rome. 
The Gothic Style. Britain. Bridges. Aqueducts. Railways, xi. Sunday. — An 
Autumnal Sabbath Evening. Prospective Improvement of Locomotive Power. 
Lighthouses — The Eddystone Lighthouse. The Thames Tunnel. 



CLOSE OF AUTUMN. 



Miscellaneous Reflections on Autumnal Appearances. The Landscape at the 
Close of Autumn, xii. Sund.vy. — Tlie FalL of the Leaf. 



GENERAL SUMMARY OF THE ARGUMENT. 



Government of the World by General Laws. Government of the World by a 
Particular Providence. Contrast between Savage and Civilized Life, as regards 
the Arts. As regards Domestic Comforts. As regards Commerce. As regards 
Moral Cultivation, xiii. Sunday. — " T/ie Harvest is the End of the WorLd.^^ 



The preceding ten volumes are now ready for delivery ;— 
and they will be followed, with all due despatch, by the 
subjoined, among others, provided they are approved by 
the Board of Education. 

LIFE OF WASHINGTON, (with a portrait, and nu- 
merous engravings,) by the Rev. ChaPvLes W. Upham, 
Jluihor of ' ihe Life of iSir Henry Vane.' 

THE PURSUIT OF KNOWLEDGE UNDER DIF- 
FICULTIES ; in two volumes, v^dth Preface and Notes, 
by Francis Wayland, D. D., President of Brown Uni- 
versity. 

THE PURSUIT OF KNOWLEDGE UNDER DIF- 
FICULTIES, illustrated by incidents in the Lives of 
American Individuals ; in one volume, with Portraits. 

HUMAN PHYSIOLOGY, in two volumes, with illustra- 
tive wood cuts, by Robley Dunglison, M. D., Professor 
of the Institutes of Medicine in the Jefferson Medical College, 
Philadelphia; Author of ' Elements of Hygiene,' ' The Medi- 
cal Student,' 'Principles of Medical Practice,' S^c. Sfc. 

CHEMISTRY, with illustrative wood cuts, by Benja- 
min Silliman, M. D,, LL. D., Professor of Chemistry, 
Mineralogy , S^c. in Yale College. 

ASTRONOMY, by Dennison Olmsted, Professor of 
JYatural Philosophy and Astronomy in Yale College. 

This work will be a popular treatise on the Science ; it will also enter 
fully into its history, and consider the subject of Natural Theology, so 
far as it is related to Astronomy. 

NATURAL PHILOSOPHY, by Propessor Olmsted. 
Both of these works will be very fully illustrated by diagrams and 
wood engravings. 



THE USEFUL ARTS, considered in connexion with 
the Applications of Science; in two volumes, with many 
Cuts, by Jacob Bigelow, M. D., Professor of Materia 
Medica in Harvard University, Author of ' the Elements of 
Technology,^ S^c. Sfc. 

We subjoin a summary of the Topics discussed in the several chap- 
ters of this Important Work, that its nature and objects may be the 
more clearly understood. 

CHAPTER I. 

Outline of the History of the Arts in Ancient and Modern Times. 

Arts of the Egyptians, Assyrians, Jews, Hindoos, Chinese, Greeks, Romans, 
Dark Ages, Modern Times, Nineteenth Century. 

CHAPTER II. 

Of the Materials used in the Arts. 

Materials from the Mineral Kingdom — Stones and Earths — Marble, Granite, 
Sienite, Freestone, Slate, Soapstone, Serpentine, Gypsum, Alabaster, Chalk, 
Fluor Spar, Flint, Porphyry, Buhrstone, Novaculite, Precious Stones, Emery, 
Lead, Pumice, Tufa, Peperino, Tripoli, Clay, Asbestus, Cements, Limestone, 
Puzzolana, Tarras. Other Cements — Maltha. Metals — Iron, Copper, Lead, Tin, 
Mercury, Gold, Silver, Platina, Zinc, Antimony, Bismuth, Arsenic, RIanganese, 
Nickel. Combustibles, &c— Bitumen, Amber, Coal, Anthracite, Graphite, Peat, 
Sulphur. Materials from the Fegetable Kingdom — Wood, Bark, Oak, Hickory, 
Ash, Elm, Locust, Wild Cherry, Chestnut, Beech, Basswood, Tulip Tree, Maple, 
Birch, Button Wood, Persimmon, Black Walnut, Tupelo, Pine, Spruce, Hemlock, 
White Cedar, Cypress, Larch, Arbor Vitse, Red Cedar, Willow, Alahogany, 
Boxwood, Lignum Vitse, Cork, Hemp, Flax, Cotton, Turpentine, Caoutchouc, 
Oils, Resins, Starch, Gum. Materials from the Animal Kingdom — Skins, Hair, 
and Eur, Quills and Feathers, Wool, Silk, Bone and Ivory, Horn, Tortoise Shell, 
Whale Bone, Glue, Oil, Wax, Phosphorus. Materials used in Painting, Dyeing, 
and Famishing. 

CHAPTER III. 

Of the Form and Strength of Materials. / 

Modes of Estimation, Stress and Strain, Resistance, Extension, Compression, 
Lateral Strain, Stiffness, Tubes, Strength, Place of Strain, Incipient Fracture, 
Shape of Timber, Torsion, Limit of Bulk, Practical Remarlis. 

CHAPTER IV. 

The Preservation of Materials. 

Stones, Metals, Organic Substances, Temperature, Dryness, Wetness, Antisep- 
tics. Timber — Felling, Seasoning. Preservation of Timber. — Preservation of 
Animal Texture— Embalming, Tanning, Parchment, Catgut, Gold Beater's Skin. 
Specimens in Natural History — Appert's Process. 

CHAPTER V. 

Of Dividing and Uniting Materials. 

Cohesion. Modes of Division— Fracture, Cutting Machines, Penetration, Bor- 
ing and Drilling, Turning, Attrition, Sawing, Saw Mill, Circular Saw, Crushing, 
Stamping Mill, Bark Mill, Oil Mill, Sugar Mill, Cider Mill, Grinding, Grist Mill, 
Color Mill, Modes of Union— Insertion, Interposition, Binding, Locking, Ce- 
menting, Glueing, Welding, Soldering, Casting, Fluxes, Moulds. 



10 

CHAPTER VI. 

Of Changing the Color of Materials. 

Of Applying Superficial Color — Painting, Colors, Preparation, Application, 

Crayons, Water Colors, Distemper, Fresco, Encaustic Painting, Oil Painting, 

Varnishing, Japanning, Polishing, Lacquering, Gilding. Of Changing Intrinsic 

Color — Bleaching, Photogenic Drawing, Dyeing, Mordants, Dyes, Calico Printing. 

CHAPTER VII. 

The Arts of Writing and Printing. 

Letters. Invention of Letters, Arrangement of Letters, Writing Materials, 
Papyrus, Herculaneum, Manuscripts, Parchment, Paper, Instruments, Ink, Copy 
ing Machines, Printing, Types, Cases, Sizes, Composing, Imposing, Signatures, 
Correcting the Press, Press Work, Printing Press, Stereotyping, Machine Print- 
ing. History. 

CHAPTER VIII, 
Arts of Designing and Painting. 

Divisions, Perspective, Field of Vision, Distance and Foreshortening, Defini- 
tions, Plate II — Problems, Instrumental, Perspective, Mechanical Perspective, 
Perspectographs, Projections, Isometrical Perspective, Chiaro Oscuro, Light and 
Shade, Association, Direction of Light, Reflected Light, Expression of Shape, 
Eyes of a Portrait — Shadows, Aerial Perspective, Coloring, Colors, Shades, Tone, 
Harmony, Conti'ast, Remarks, 

CHAPTER IX, 

Arts of Engraving and Lithography. 

Engraving, Origin, Materials, Instrvtments, Styles, Line, Engraving, Medal 
Ruling, Stippling, Etching, Mezzo-tinto, Aqua Tinta, Copperplate Printing, Col- 
ored Engravings, Steel Engraving, Wood Engraving. Lithography-r-Principles, 
Origin, Lithographic Stones, Preparation, Lithographic Ink and Chalk, Mode of 
Drawing, Etching the Stone, Printing, Printing Ink. Remarks, 

CHAPTER X. 

Of Sculpture, Modelling, and Casting. 

Subjects — Modelling, Casting in Plaster, Bronze Casting, Practice of Sculpture, 
Materials, Objects of Sculpture, Gem Engraving, Cameos, Intaglios, Mosaic, 
Scagliola. 

CHAPTER XI. 
Of Architecture and Building. 

Architecture — Elements, Foundations, Column, Wall,Lintel, Arch, Abutments, 
Arcade, Vault, Dome, Plate I, Roof, Styles of Building, Definitions, Measures, 
Drawings, Restorations, Egyptian Style, The Chinese Style, The Grecian Style, 
Oi-ders of Architecture — Doric Order, Ionic Order, Corinthian Order, Caryatides, 
Grecian Temple, Grecian Theatre, Remarks, Plate IV, Roman Style, Tuscan 
Order, Roman Doric, Roman Ionic, Composite Order, Roman Structures, Re- 
marks, Plate V, Greco-Gothic Style, Saracenic Style, Gothic Style, Definitions, 
Plate VI, Plate VII, Application. 

CHAPTER XII. 

Arts of Heating and Ventilation. 

Production of Heat— Fuel, Weight of Fuel, Combustible Matter of Fuel, Water 
in Fuel, Charcoal, Communication of Heat, Radiated and Conducted Heat, Fire 
in the Open Air, Fire Places, Admission of Cold Air, Open Fires, Franklin Stove, 
Rumford Fire Place, Double Fire Place, Coal Grate, Anthracite Grate, Burns' 
Grate, Building a Fire, Furnaces, Stoves, Russian Stove, Cockle, Cellar Stoves, 
and Air Flues, Heating by Water, Heating by Steam, Retention of Heat, Causes 
of Loss, Crevices, Chimneys, Entries and Sky Lights, Windows, Ventilation,Oh- 
jects, Modes, Ventilators, Culverts, Smoky Rooms, Damp Chimneys, Large Fire 



11 

Places, Close Rooms. Contiguous Doors, Short Chimneys. Opposite Fire Places, 
Neighboring Emiuences, Turucap, &c., Contiguous Flues.' Burning of Smoke. 

CHAPTER XIII, 

Arts of Illumination. 

Flame— Support of Flame, Torches and Candles, Lamps, Reservoirs, Astral 
Lamp, Hydrostatic Lamps, Automaton Lamp, Mechanical Lamps, Fountain Lamp, 
Argand Lamp, Reflectors, Hanging of Pictures, Transparency of Flame, Glass 
Shades, Sinumbral Lamp, Measurement of Light, Gas Lights, Coal Gas, Oil Gas, 
Gasometer, Portable Gas Lights, Safety Lamp, Lamp without Flame, Modes of 
procuring Light. 

CHAPTER XIV. 

Arts of Locomotion. 

Motion of Animals, Inertia, Aids to Locomotion, Wheel Cariage^s, Wheels, Rol- 
lers, Size of Wheels, Line of Traction, Broad Wheels, Form of Wheels, Axletrees, 
Springs, Attacliing of Horses, Highways, Roads, Pavements, McAdam Roads, 
Bridges, 1, Wooden Bridges, 2, Stone Bridges, 3, Cast Iron Bridges, 4, Suspen- 
sion Bridges, 5, Floating Bridges, Rail Roads, Edge Railway, Tram Road, Single 
Rail, Passings, Propelling Power, Locomotive Engines, Canals, Embankments, 
Aqueducts, Tunnels, Gates and Weirs, Locks, Boats, Size of Canals, Sailing, Form 
of a Ship, Keel and Rudder, Effect of the Wind, Stability of a Ship, Steam Boats, 
Diving Bell, Submarine Navigation, Aerostation, Balloon, Parachute. 

CHAPTER XV. ^ 

Elements of Machinery. 

Machines, Motion, Rotary or Circular Motion, Band Wheels, Rag Wheels, 
Toothed Wheels, Spiral Gear, Bevel Gear, Crown Wheel, Universal Joint, Per- 
petual Screw, Brush Wheels, Ratchet Wheel, Distant Rotary Motion, Change of 
Velocity, Fusee, Alternate or Reciprocating Motion, Cams, Crank, Parallel Mo- 
tion, Sun and Planet Wheel, Inclined Wheel, Epicycloidal Wheel, Rack and Seg- 
ment, Rack and Pinion, Belt and Segment, Scapements, Continued Rectilinear 
Motion, Band, Rack, Universal Lever, Screw, Change of Direction, Toggle Joint, 
Of Engaging and Disengaging Machinery, Of Equalizing Motion, Governor, 
Fly Wheel, Friction, Remarks. 

CHAPTER XVI. 

Of the Moving Forces used in the Arts. 

Sources of Power, Vehicles of Power, Animal Power, Men, Horses, JVater 
Power, Overshot Wheel, Chain Wheel, Undershot Wheel, Back Water, Besant's 
Wheel, Lambert's Wheel, Breast Wheel, Horizontal Wheel, Barker's Mill, Wind 
Power, Vertical Windmill, Adjustment of Sails, Horizontal Windmill, Steam 
Power, Steam, Applications of Steam, By Condensation, By Generation, By Ex- 
pansion, The Steam Engine, Boiler Appendages, Engine, Noncondensing Engine, 
Condensing Engines, Description, Expansion, Engines, Valves, Pistons, Parallel 
Motion, Historical Remarks, Projected Improvements, Rotative Engines, Use of 
Steam at High Temperatures, Use of Vapors of Low Temperature, Gas Engines, 
Steam Carriages, Steam Gun, Gunpowder, Manufacture, Detonation, Force, Pro- 
perties of a Gun, Blasting. 

CHAPTER XVII. 

Arts of Conveying Water. 

Of Conducting Water — Aqueducts, Water Pipes, Friction of Pipes, Obstruction 
of Pipes, Syphon, Of Raising Water, Scoop Wheel, Persian Wheel, Noria, Rope 
Pump, Hydreole, Archimedes' Screw, Spiral Pump, Centrifugal Pump, Common 
Pumps, Forcing Pumps, Plunger Pump, Delahire's Pump, Hydrostatic Press, 
Lifting Pump, Bag Pump, Double Acting Pump, Rolling Pump, Eccentric Pump, 
Arrangement of Pipes, Chain Pump, Schemnitz Vessels, or Hungarian Machine, 
Hero's Fountain, Atmospheric Machines, Hydraulic Ram, Of Projecting Water. 
Fountains, Fire Engines, Throwing Wheel. 



12 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

Arts of Combining Flexible Fibres. 

Theory of Twisting, Rope Makin?, Cotton Manufacture, Elementary Inven- 
tions, Batting, Carding. Drawing, Roving, Spinning, Mule Spinning, Warping, 
Dressing, Weaving, Twilling, Double Weaving, Cross Weaving, Lace, Carpeting, 
Tapestry, Velvets, Linens, Woolens, Felting, Paper Slaking. 

CHAPTER XIX. 

Arts of Horology. 

Sun Dial, Clepsydra, Water Clock, Clock Work, Maintaining Power, Regulat- 
ing Movement, Pendulum, Balance, Scapement, Description of a Clock, Striking 
Part, Description of a Watch. 

CHAPTER XX. 

Arts of Metallurgy. 

Extraction of Metals, Assaying, Alloys, Gold, Extraction, Cupellation, Parting, 
Cementation, Alloy, Working, Gold Beating, Gilding on Metals, Gold Wire, 
Silver, Extraction, Working, Coining, Plating, Copper, Extraction, Working, 
Brass, Manufacture, Buttons, Pins, Bronze, Z,earf, Extraction, Manufacture, Sheet 
Lead, Lead Pipes, Leaden Shot, Tin, Block Tin, Tin Plates, Silvering of Mirrors, 
Iron, Smelting, Crude Iron, Casting, Malleable Iron, Forging, Rolling and Slit- 
ting, Wire Drawing, Nail Making, Gun Making, Steel, Alloys of Steel, Case Hard- 
ening, Tempering, Cutlery. 

CHAPTER XXI. 

Arts of Vitrification. 

Glass, Materials, Crown Glass, Fritting, Melting, Blowing, Annealing, Broad 
Glass, Flint Glass, Bottle Glass, Cylinder Glass, Plate Glass, Moulding, Pressing, 
Cutting, Stained Glass, Enamelling, Artificial Gems, Devitrification, Reaumuj-'s 
Porcelain, Crystallo-Ceramie, Glass Thread, Remarks. 

CHAPTER XXII. 

Arts of Induration by Heat. 

Bricks, Tiles, Terra Cotta, Crucibles, Pottery, Operations, Stone Ware, White 
Ware, Throwing, Pressing, Casting, Burning, Printing, Glazing, China Ware, 
European Porcelain, Etruscan Vases. 

A FAMILIAR TREATISE ON THE CONSTITU- 
TION OF THE UNITED STATES, by the Hon. Judge 
Story, L L. D., Jluthor of ' Commentaries on the Constitu- 
tion,' SjX. 

LIFE OF DR. FRANKLIN. 

SELECTIONS FROM THE WRITINGS OF 
FRANKLIN, by Jared Sparks, L L. D., Professor of His- 
tory in Harvard Umversittj, Author of ' the Life and Writings 
of Washington, ' ' the Life and Writings of Franklin, ' 4'c .<^'c. 

CHRISTIANITY AND KNOWLEDGE, by the Rev. 
Royal Robbins. 

The design of this Work is to show what Christianity has done for 
the human intellect, and what that has done for Christianity. 



THE LORD OF THE SOIL, OR, PICTURES OF 
AGRICULTURAL LIFE ; by Rev. Warren Burton, 
Author of The District School as it Was,' S^^c. &fc. 

SCIENCE AND THE ARTS, by the Rev. Alonzo 
Potter, D.D., Prof essor of Moral Philosophy and Rhetoric, 
in Union College, Schenectady, Jf. Y. 

The design of this Work is to call attention to the fact that the Arts 
are the result of intelligence — that they have, each one its principles 
or theory — that these principles are furnished by Science, and that he, 
therefore, who would understand the Arts, must know something of 
Science ; while, on the other hand, he who would see the true power 
and worth of Science ought to study it in its applications. The work 
will be made up of facts, illustrating and enforcing these views — so ar- 
ranged as to exhibit the invariable connexion between processes in Art, 
and laws in JVature. The importance of such a work requires no 
comment. 

AGRICULTURE, by the Hon. Judge Buel, of Albany, 
Editor of ' the Cultivator. ' 

This Work is intended as an aid to the Young Farmer, and from 
the known character of the gentleman who has it in hand, there can be 
no doubt but that it will be executed in a highly satisfactory manner. 
The following, among other subjects, will be therein treated of, viz. 

1. The Importance of Agriculture to a Nation. 

2. Improvement in our Agriculture practicable atid necessary. 

3. Some of the principles of the new and improved Husbandry. 

4. Agriculture considered as an Employment. 

5. Earths and Soils. 

6. Improvement of the Soil. 

7. Analogy between Animal and Vegetable Nutrition. 

8. Further Improvement of the Soil. 

9. " " by Manures, Animal and Vegetable. 

10. " " by Mineral Manures. 

11. Principles and Operations of Draining. 

12. Principles of Tillage. 

13 Operations of Tillage, «Sz;c. &c. 

Due notice will also be taken of alternating crops, root husbandry, mixed hus- 
bandry, the management of pasture and meadow lands, the garden, orchard, &c. 

Cuts, illustrative of the various operations spoken of and recommended, wiH 
be given. 

GEOLOGY AND MINERALOGY, by Charles T. 
Jackson, M. D., Geological Surveyor of Maine and Rhode 
Island. 

STATISTICS OF THE UNITED STATES, by 

George Tucker, P^^of essor of Moral Philosophy in the tTwi- 
versity of Virginia, Author of ' the Life of Jefferson,^ Sfc. S^c. 



14 

AMERICAN TREES AND PLANTS, used for medi- 
cinal and economical purposes and employed in the Arts, 
with numerous engravings ; by Professor Jacob Bigelow, 
Author of ' Plants of Boston,^ 'Medical Botany,' Sfc. Sfc. 

MORAL EFFECTS OF INTERNAL IMPROVE- 
MENTS, by Robert Pvantoul, Jr., Esq. 

LIVES OF THE REFORMERS, by Rev. Romeo El- 
ton, Professor of Languages in Brown University. 

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF DISTINGUISH- 
ED FEMALES, by Mrs. Emma C. Embury, of Brookhjn, 

jy. Y. 

SKETCHES OF AMERICAN CHARACTER, by 

Mrs. Sarah J. Hale, Editor of ' the Ladies' Book,' Author 
of the '■Ladies' Wreath,' 'Flora's Interpreter,' S^^c. Sfc. 

DO RIGHT AND HAVE RIGHT, by Mrs. Almira 
H. Lincoln Phelps, Principal of the Literary Department 
of the Young Ladies' Seminary, at West Chester, Pa., 
formerly of the Troy Seminary, JY. Y., Author of 'Familiar 
Lectures on Botany,' 'Female Student,' 4'c. 

The object of this Work may be gathered from the following re- 
marks of Mrs. Phelps. " A popular work on the principles of law, with 
stories illustrating these principles, might be very profitable to people 
in common life, as well as to children. The ward cheated by a guard- 
ian, the widow imposed on by administrators or executors, the wife 
abandoned by a husband, with whom she had trusted her paternal in- 
heritance, the partner in business, overreached by his crafty associate, 
for want of a knowledge of the operations of the law, — all these might 
be exhibited in such a way as to teach the necessity of legallvnowledge 
to both sexes, and to all ages and classes." 

SCENES IN THE LIFE OF JOANNA OF SICILY, 

by Mrs. E. F. Ellet, of Columbia, S. C. 

This is written with a view to young readers, and for the purpose of 
illustrating important historical events. 

The Publishers have also in preparation for this Series, 
a History of the United States, and of other Countries, a 
History of the Aborigines of our Country, a History of 
Inventions, Works on Botany, Natural History, &c. &c. 
Many distinguished writers, not here mentioned, have been 
engaged, whose names will be in due time announced, 
although at present, we do not feel at liberty to make them 
public. 



15 

Among the works prepared, and in a state of forward- 
ness, for the Juvenile Sei'ies are the following, viz. 

MEANS AND ENDS, OR SELF TRAINING, by Miss 
Caroline Sedgwick, Author of ' The Poor Rich Man, 
and Rich Poor Man,' ' Live and Let Live,' ' Home,' Sfc. Sfc. 

NEW-ENGLAND HISTORICAL SKETCHES, by 
N. Hawthorne, Author of' Twice Told Tales,' Sfc. 

CONVERSATIONS AND STORIES BY THE 
FIRE SIDE, by Mrs. Sarah J. Hale, 

FAILURE NOT RUIN, by Horatio G. Hale, A. M. 

TALES IN PROSE, blending instruction with amuse- 
ment ; by Miss Mary E. Lee, of Charleston, S. C. 

PICTURES OF EARLY LIFE :— Stories; each in- 
culcating some moral lesson ; by Mrs. Emma C. Embury, 
Q? Brooklyn, JY. Y. 

FREDERICK HASKELL'S VOYAGE ROUND 
THE V^ORLD, by H. G. Hale, A. M., Philologist to 
the Exploring Ex2:)editio7i. 

BIOGRAPHY FOR THE YOUNG, by MissE. Rob- 
BiiNS, Author of ' American Popular Lessons,' Sequel to the 
same, S^c. 

THE WONDERS OF NATURE, by A. J. Stansbury, 
Esq., of Washington City ; illustrated by numerous cuts. 

WORKS OF ART, by the same ; illustrated by numer- 
ous cuts. 

PLEASURES OF TASTE, and other Stories select- 
ed from the Writings of Jane Taylor, with a sketch of her 
life, (and a likeness,) by Mrs. S. J.. Hale. 

SELECTIONS FROM THE WORKS OF MRS. 
BARBAULD, with a Life and Portrait. 

' SELECTIONS FROM THE WORKS OF MARIA 
EDGEWORTH, ivith a Life and Portrait. 

SELECTIONS FROM THE WORKS OF MRS. 
SHERWOOD, ivith a Life and Portrait. 

SELECTIONS FROM THE WORKS OF DR. 
AIKIN, ivith a Sketch of his Life, by Mrs. Hale. 

CHEMISTRY FOR BEGINNERS, by Benjamin Sil- 
LiMAN, Jr., Assistant in the Department of Chemistry, Min- 
eralogy, and Geology in Yale College ; aided by Professor 
Silliman. 



16 

MY SCHOOLS AND MY TEACHERS, by Mrs. A. 
H. Lincoln Phelps. 

The author's design, in this wofk, is to describe the Common Schools 
as they were in New-England at the beginning of the present century ; 
to delineate the peculiar characters of different Teachers ; and to give 
a sketch of her various school companions, with their progress in after 
life, endeavoring thereby to show that the child, while at school, is 
forming the future man, or woman. 

It is not the intention of the Publishers to drive these 
works through the Press with a raih^oad speed, in the hope 
of securing the market, by the multiplicity of the publica- 
tions cast upon the community; they rely for patronage, 
upon the intrinsic merits of the works, and consequently 
time must be allowed the writers to mature and systematize 
them. The more surely to admit of this, the two Series 
will be issued in sets of five and ten volumes at a time. 
Besides the advantage above alluded to, that will result 
from such an arrangement, it will place The School Li- 
brary within the reach of those Districts, which, from the 
limited amount of their annual funds, would not otherwise 
be enabled to procure it. 

The works will be printed on paper and with type ex- 
pressly manufactured for the Library; v/ill be bound in 
cloth, with leather backs and corners, having gilt titles 
upon the backs, and for greater durability, cloth hinges 
inside of the covers. 

The larger Series will be furnished to Schools, Academies, 
&c., at seventy-Jive cents per volume, and the Juvenile Series 
at forty cents per volume ; which the Publishers advisedly 
declare to be cheaper, than any other series of works that 
can be procured at home or abroad, bearing in mind their 
high intellectual character, and the style of their mechanical 
execution. 

The Publishers solicit orders from School Committees, 
Trustees, Teachers, and others, for either or both Series, 
and wish particular directions hoiv, to whom, and to what 
'place the books shall be forwarded. 

Annexed are Specimen Pages of the two Series. 



THE ARTERIES. 



271 




carried into the reservoir, and they fill it half full of water, 
C ; the mouth of the pipe, D, which is to convey away 
the water, reaches into the water in the reservoir. As 
the water rises, the air is compressed : so that, although 
the pumps act alternately, the elasticity of the contained 
air acts uninterruptedly in pressing on the surface of the 
water, and raising it by the tube, D, in an equable stream. 
The elasticity of the contained air, fills up the interval 
between the actions of the pumps, and admits of no in- 
terruption to the force with which the water is propelled 
upwards. 

Surely these are sufiicient indications of the necessity 
of three powers acting in propelling the blood from the 
heart. The first, is a sudden and powerful action of 
the ventricle : the second, is a contraction of the artery, 
somewhat similar, excited by its distention : the third, 
though a property independent of life, is a power permit- 
ting no interval or alternation ; it is the elasticity of the 
coats of the artery : and these three powers, duly adjust- 
ed, keep up a continued stream in the blood-vessels. It 
is tme, that when an artery is wounded, the blood flows 



308 



NATURAL THEOLOGY. 



The superior sagacity of animals which hunt their 
prey, and which, consequently, depend for their hveli- 
hood upon their nose, is well known in its use ; but not 
at all known in the organization which produces it. 

The external ears of beasts of prey, of hons, tigers, 
wolves, have their trumpet-part, or concavity, standing 
forward, to seize the sounds which are before them — 
viz., the sounds of the animals which they pursue or 
watch. The ears of animals of flight are turned back- 
w^ard, to give notice of the approach of their enemy from 
behind, whence he may steal upon them unseen. This 
is a critical distinction, and is mechanical ; but it may be 
suggested, and, I think, not without probabihty, that it 
is the effect of continual habit. 




[Heads of the hare and wolf, showing the different manner 
in which the ears are turned. — ^Am. Ed.] 

The eyes of animals which follow their prey by night, 
as cats, owls, &c., possess a faculty not given to those 
of other species, namely, of closing the pupil entirely. 



OF COLUMBUS. 61 

It is difficult even for the imagination to conceive the 
feelings of such a man, at the moment of so sublime a 
discovery. What a bewildering crowd of conjectures 
must have thronged upon his mind, as to the land which 
lay before him, covered with darkness. That it was 
fruitful was evident from the vegetables which floated 
from its shores. He thought, too, that he perceived in 
the balmy air the fragrance of aromatic groves. The 
moving light which he had beheld, proved that it was the 
residence of man. But what were its inhabitants? Were 
they Hke those of other parts of the globe ; or were they 
some strange and monstrous race, such as the imagina-. 
tion in those times was prone to give to all remote and 
unknown regions? Had he come upon some wild island, 
far in the Indian seas; or was this the famed Cipango 
itself, the object of his golden fancies? A thousand 
speculations of the kind must have swarmed upon him, 
as he watched for the night to pass away; wondering 
whether the morning light would reveal a savage wilder- 
ness, or dawn upon spicy groves, and glittering fanes, and 
gilded cities, and all the splendors of oriental civiHzation. 



CHAPTER XI. 

First Landing of Columbus in the J^ew World. — Cruise 
among the Bahama Islands. — Discovery of Cuba and 
Hispaniola. [1492.] 

When the day dawned, Columbus saw before him a 
level and beautiful island, several leagues in extent, of 
great freshness and verdure, and covered with trees like 
a continual orchard. Though every thing appeared in 
the wild luxuriance of untamed nature, yet the island was 
evidently populous, for the inhabitants were seen issuing 
from the woods, and running from all parts to the shore. 
They were all perfectly naked, and from their attitudes 
6 I. 



286 



A VISIT TO PALOS. 



residence of Martin x\lonzo or Vicente Yanez Pinzon, 
in the time of Columbus. 




We now arrived at the church of St. George, in the 
porch of which Columbus first proclaimed to the inhabi- 
tants of Palos the order of the sovereigns, that they 
should furnish him with ships for his great voyage of dis- 
covery. This edifice has lately been thoroughly repaired, 
and, being of sohd mason-work, promises to stand for 
ages, a monument of the discoverers. It stands outside 
of the village, on the brow of a hill, looking along a little 
valley toward the river. The remains of a Moorish 
arch prove it to have been a mosque in former times ; 
just above it, on the crest of the hill, is the ruin of a 
Moorish castle. 

I paused in the porch, and endeavored to recall the 
interesting scene that had taken place there, when Co- 
lumbus, accompanied by the zealous friar Juan Perez, 
caused the public notary to read the royal order in pres- 
ence of the astonished alcaldes, regidors, and alguazils ; 
but it is difficult to conceive the consternation that must 
have been struck into so remote a httle community, by 
this sudden apparition of an entire stranger among them, 
bearing a command that they should put their persons 
and ships at his disposal, and sail with him away into the 
unknown wilderness of the ocean. 

The interior of the church has nothing remarkable, 



THE COTTON PLANT. 335 

work of creation and the work of grace revealed in the 
word of God. Proofs corroborative of the authenticity 
of the Bible, have been gathered from those very sources 
which formerly were appKed to by the skeptic for his 
sharpest weapons ; and at this moment, (such is the secu- 
rity with which Christianity may regard the progress of 
knowledge,) there does not exist in our own country, nor, 
so far as I am aware, in any other, one philosopher of 
eminence who has ventured to confront Christianity and 
philosophy, as manifestly contradictory. May we not 
venture to hope that, in a very short time, the weak darts 
of minor spirits, which from time to time are still permit- 
ted to assail our bulwarks, will be also quenched, and the 
glorious Gospel, set free from all the oppositions of sci- 
ence falsely so called, shall walk hand in hand over the 
earth with a philosophy always growing in humility, be- 
cause every day becoming more genuine. C. J. C. D. 



TWELFTH WEEK— MONDAY. 

VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES USED FOR WEAVING. THE COTTON- 
PLANT. 

The cotton-plant, another vegetable substance, exten- 
sively used in manufactures, differs materially from that 
already described, in its properties, appearance, and hab- 
its. Instead of being generally diffused over temperate 
climates, it belongs more properly to the torrid zone, and 
the regions bordering on it ; and instead of being chiefly 
confined to one species, as to its pecuhar and useful qual- 
ities, its varieties seem scarcely to have any limit, extend- 
ing from an herb* of a foot or two in height, to a treef 

* Gossypium herbaceum, or common herbaceous cotton-plant. 

t Bombax ceiba, or American silk cotton-tree. — [The Baobab, or 
Adansonia digitata, an enormous and long-lived tree, also belongs to 
this family. But it is incorrect to call these trees " varieties " of the 
cotton plant. They are nearly allied to it, indeed, but they stand in dif- 
ferent divisions of the great order of malvace^, or mallows ; and the 
downy contents of their pods are of little use compared with true cotton. 
—Am. Ed.] 



378 GLOSSARY. 

Coup de main, (French term,) a military expression, denoting an in- 
stantaneous, sudden, unexpected attack upon an enemy. 

JDulce et decorum est pro patria mori, It is delightful and glorious to 
die for one's country. 

Effigies Seb. Caboti Angli filii Joannis Caboti viilitis aurati. As 
will be seen by the text, where this, inscription occurs, (p. 121,) 
there is an ambiguity in the application of the last two v/ords. The 
other part of the inscription, may be rendered, "the portrait (or 
likeness) of Sebastian Cabot, of England, son of John Cabot." 
Miles, or militis, means, literally, a warrior, or soldier, or officer 
of the army ; and in the English law, sometimes indicates a knight. 
Auratus, or aurati, means gilt, gilded, or decked with gold. Eques 
means a horseman, or knight, who was frequently called eques aura- 
tus, because, anciently, none but knights were allowed to beautify 
their armor, and other habiliments, with gold. 

En masse, in a body, in the mass, altogether. 

Eques, and Eques auratus. See Effigies. 

Fascine, {-pi. fascines,) a bundle of fagots, or small branches of trees, 
or sticks of wood, bound together, for filling ditches, &,c. 

Formula, {\A. formulae,) a prescribed form or order. 

Gsodcelic, relating to the art of measuring surfaces. 

Gramina, grasses. 

Green Mountain Boys, a term applied, during the Revolutionary War, 
to the inhabitants of Vermont, (Green Mountain,) particularly those 
who were in the army. 

Gymnotus, the electric eel. 

Habeas Corpus, "you may have the body." A writ, as it has been 
aptly termed, of personal freedom ; which secures, to any individual, 
who may be imprisoned, the privilege of having his cause imme- 
diately removed to the highest court, that the judges may decide 
whether there is ground for his imprisonment or not. 

Hipparchus, a celebrated mathematician and astronomer of Nicoea, in 
Bithynia, who died 125 years before the Christian era. He was 
the first after Thales and Sulpicius Gallus, who found out the exact 
time of eclipses, of which he made a calculation for 600 years. He is 
supposed to have been the first, who reduced astronomy to a science, 
and prosecuted the study of it systematically. 

Loyalists, Royalists, Refugees, and Tories. In the times of the Revo- 
lution, these terms were used as technical or party names, and were 
sometimes applied indiscriminately. Strictly speaking, however. 
Loyalists, were those whose feelings or opinions were in favor of 
the mother country, but who declined taking part in the Revolu- 
tion ; Royalists, were those who preferred or ftivored, a kingly gov- 
ernment ; Refugees, were those who fled from the country and 
sought the protection of the British ; and Tories, were those, who 
actually opposed the war, and took part with the enemy, aiding 
them by all the means in their power. 

Magnetic Variation, a deviation of the needle in the mariner's com- 
pass, from an exact North and South direction. 

Master-at-arms, an officer appointed to take charge of the small arms 
in a ship of war, and to teach the officers and crew the exercise of 



ISmo. pages. 

MARY BOND IN A SICK-ROOM. 129 

ring it all the time. Of course I do not make it 
every time it is wanted, for sometimes, when I 
want "it extra good, I boil and stir it a full hour, 
and then I put it away in a close vessel and in a 
cool place. For Raymond, or for any one get- 
ting well, and free from fever, I put in a third 
wheat flour, and half milk. You see it is a very 
simple process, sir." 

c^Yes — simple enough. But it is to these 
simple processes that people will not give their 
attention." 

Mary had the happiness of seeing Raymond 
sitting up before their parents returned, and when 
they drove into the great gate, and up the lane, 
he was in his rocking-chair by the window, watch- 
ing for them. They had heard of his illness, and 
were most thankful to find him so far recovered. 
The Doctor chanced to be present when they 
arrived. " O, Doctor !" said Mrs. Bond, after 
the first greetings were over, "how shall I ever 
be grateful enough to you ?" 

" I have done very little, Mrs. Bond," replied 
the honest Doctor. " In Raymond's case, medi- 
cine could do little or nothing. Nature had been 
, overtasked, and wanted rest and soothing. Under 
God, Raymond owes his recovery to Mary." 

"O, mother !" exclaimed Raymond, bursting 
into tears, •=' she is the best sister in the world !" 

" She is the best sister in the two worlds !" 
cried little Grace Bond, a child of five years old. 

A source of true comfort and happiness is such 
a child and such a sister as Mary Bond ! — a light 



138 THE LOST CHILDREN. 

US, as soon as we are missed ; let us keep on 
and perhaps we may find some other path." 

The poor children proceeded on their course, 
unconscious that every step was taking them deep- 
er in the forest, until, completely bewildered by 
the thick darkness, and overcome with fatigue, they 
could go no further. " Let us pray to God, and 
then we can he down, and die in peace," said 
George ) and the innocent children knelt down on 
the fallen leaves, and hsped their simple prayers, 
as they were accustomed to do at their mother's 
side. 

''We must try to find some shelter, George," 
said Kate, as they arose from their knees, '' this 
chill air will kill you, even if we escape the wild 
beasts." As she spoke, the hght of a young 
moon which faintly illumined the depths of the 
wood, enabled her to discover a hollow log lying 
near. Tearing off some branches from the little 
hemlock tree, she piled them around the Tog, in 
such a manner, as to form a sort of penthouse ; 
and, placing George within the more efi^ectual 
shelter of the log, she lay down by his side. Worn 
widi fatigue, notwithstanding their fears, the chil- 
dren soon fell into a profound sleep ; and the 
beams of the morning sun, shining through the 
branches which formed their covering, first awoke 
them from their peaceful slumbers. 

Their Httle hearts swelled with gratitude to the 
merciful God, who had preserved them through 
the perils of the night, and the morning hymn which 
was wont to resound within the walls of their 



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i. LIBRARY Ol- ^^'^'^"^e^,^,, aH^/ 

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III 

022 132 078 5 



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